Roulette
by kahlen369
Summary: Midoriya Izuku has always dreamed of becoming a hero like All Might. But Fate has a funny way of giving you what you wanted in a way you never expect. An AU where Midoriya Izuku is born with "Quirk Change", which grants him a new, completely different, completely random (or so it seems) quirk at will.
1. The First Quirk

Midoriya Izuku had always dreamed of becoming a hero, just like All Might.

-o-

 _(Fate always had a funny way of giving you what you wanted in a way you never expected._

 _Bakugou liked to say that was_ just fate being a fucking bitch _, but, well, he'd never had much of a sense of humor, anyway._

 _Midoriya thought it was Fate's way of testing you, of seeing if you really wanted what you wished for, after all, if it didn't happen exactly the way you thought.)_

-o-

In the middle of Tokyo, Japan, during an age where quirks were a common everyday part of life, there were two young boys.

Midoriya Izuku and Bakugou Katsuki were neighbors, and they ended up going to the same school when they started kindergarten. Both of them loved All Might and dreamed of becoming heroes.

They were fast friends, best friends even.

Bakugou was rather bossy, even as a toddler, but he was good at it, with the kind of easy confidence that drew others to him. When Bakugou led, Izuku followed without question, eyes forever wide with admiration.

Katsuki-chan became Kacchan easily, and for a time, things were good.

-o-

Then, one day, Bakugou received his quirk, sparks coming from his hands as he announced it to their entire kindergarten class.

It was an amazing quirk. Powerful, flashy. Great for a hero in the making. Everyone told him so, from his parents to his classmates to his teacher to people he barely knew. Little Izuku did it most of all, his biggest fan, as usual.

Kacchan basked in the praise, face lighting up almost as much as the sparks in his hands.

-o-

After that, things changed.

-o-

Slowly, but surely, Bakugou's bossiness became something worse. Until he grew angry at anyone who disagreed. Confidence became arrogance. His competitive spirit became an obsession with being number one.

He still dreamed about being a hero like All Might.

But the focus, the picture was sharper. It was no longer simply a childish dream, but a clear ambition. The path before him was obvious now, and thanks to his amazing quirk, he would have no trouble with it.

Bakugou Katsuki was going to the best of the best, the number one hero of all of Japan.

-o-

And Midoriya Izuku, despite still remaining quirkless, dreamed of the same. But the dream that once drew them to each other, did little other than make them clash now.

Even so, even though he was the most frequent target of Bakugou's growing temper, Midoriya stayed. He continued to follow him around with the same clear admiration in his eyes. There was more, even, because his quirk really was amazing.

Midoriya Izuku still dreamed about becoming a hero just like All Might.

He still dreamed he would get an amazing quirk like Kacchan too.

-o-

Eventually, he did.

 _(Oh, how he did.)_

-o-

Midoriya received his quirk nearly a year after Bakugou. He was five and a half years old, one of the last in his kindergarten class to get a quirk.

-o-

He'd been bouncing off the walls in excitement, as soon as he'd found out last night. Afterwards, despite his mother's best exasperated attempts, he'd barely been able to sleep, too excited about telling everyone. Finally, he had his quirk too!

When he arrived at his kindergarten class, he didn't even bother with greetings before he giddily announced to all the other students (and adults) there, "I got my quirk!"

"About time." Kacchan replied, curiosity clear despite his dismissive tone. "What is it?"

"I _glow!_ " Izuku explained with an excited grin.

The other kids did not share his enthusiasm. Especially Kacchan, who only frowned, repeating incredulously, "You… glow?"

"Yeah!" Izuku nodded eagerly, curly green hair flopping into his eyes, as he did so. Instead of brushing it away, he closed his eyes, face scrunched in concentration, as he tried to prove it.

He'd glowed throughout most of the night, without even trying, as his fascination for his quirk kept him up. It was easy, to think of the feeling then, of warmth all throughout his body, as he summoned his glow.

It worked. Sort of.

While there was a faint greenish glow to Izuku's skin, especially when you looked more closely, it wasn't particularly noticeable under the bright classroom lights. Mostly, he just looked like he was going to be sick, with the greenish tinge to his skin all most could see.

"Um, it's a lot more obvious in the dark." Izuku said, a little sheepishly.

-o-

Indeed, during nap time, when the lights went out, his quirk was much more obvious.

In the darkness, it was immediately clear that when activated, his skin emitted a pretty green glow all over, and a few of the kids, mostly the girls, oohed and ahhed at the sight.

Kacchan, however, remained unimpressed, only scoffing with the same frown on his face.

-o-

After that, Bakugou stopped teasing ( _bullying_ ) him about being quirkless.

Instead, he teased ( _bullied_ ) him about having a stupid, pointless quirk. Especially when Midoriya talked about Heroes and becoming one himself.

He still called him Deku, every chance he got.

-o-

 _Midoriya still dreamed about becoming a hero like All Might._

-o-

Maybe it was a silly, stupid dream, just like Kacchan said.

How was he supposed to defeat villains with glowing? Sure, he could help out in the dark, or at night, but, really, wouldn't a flashlight be able to do the same? What was the point, of his quirk?

Deku. Useless. Maybe Kacchan was right.

-o-

 _(Later, he would think of underground rescue missions and the practicality of such an easy, visible light source, he would think of Aoyama and Hagakure and think of using light to blind enemies, he would ruminate on the possibility that his green light might've been something more, if only he'd had more time with it—)_

-o-

On the day he got his quirk, Midoriya Izuku smiled so brightly he rivalled his glowing skin. He'd bounced with excitement, staring at his own hands with fascination.

He'd loved his quirk.

-o-

 _(The very first quirk ever was a glowing quirk._

 _Later, he would recognize this fact, and laugh._

His _first quirk was a glowing quirk too.)_

-o-

Midoriya tried to remember that feeling, every time Kacchan or someone else told him his quirk wasn't good enough.

Because it was. It had to be.

Because, despite everything, he still dreamed of being a hero.

He still wanted to be by Kacchan's side, as his friend.

-o-

Midoriya Izuku had always been someone who looked at hopeless odds, and gambled anyway.

-o-

 _(Which was the funny thing, about it all, when he'd think about it, later on._

 _Because he'd never needed his quirk to gamble_ everything _he had on a_ single _instant.)_

-o-

Though Kacchan had changed greatly from the boy he'd first befriended, Izuku did not. He still followed the blonde around, calling out praise whenever the boy did something amazing. Because his admiration remained, even as his fear of his former friend grew.

And maybe it was habit more than anything, or he simply liked having more followers around who praised him, but even though he always had a mean word to say or an insult to spit at him, Kacchan never actually told him to go away.

So he never did.

-o-

 _Because when Bakugou led, Midoriya followed without question, eyes forever wide with admiration._

-o-

Then, one day, Bakugou tried to hurt someone else.

-o-

 _And Midoriya Izuku had always dreamed about becoming a hero like All Might._

-o-

So, even though his quirk was useless in a fight (useless for a hero), even though glowing would not be able to stop his former friend's fist from hitting his face, he stepped forward anyway.

Body trembling, voice shaking as he spoke, Midoriya found himself standing in front of Bakugou's angry form before he could stop himself. As the blonde reacted to his interference by growling and stalking forward, arm rearing back and ready to strike against him, Izuku closed his eyes—

-o-

Midoriya loved his quirk, he did. _He did._

But.

He _hated_ it too.

And in that moment, more than anything, despite his own previous convictions and feelings, _he wished he had a different quirk—-_

-o-

Perhaps someone out there was listening, after all.

-o-

 _(Fate always had a funny way of giving you what you wanted in a way you never expected._

 _But wasn't that what quirks were all about, anyway?)_

-o-

Eyes closed, Izuku expected pain to explode in his skull immediately. Instead, there was a sense of warmth throughout his body, a strange tingling and then—

He opened his eyes.

Kacchan's fist sinked into skin. _Literally._ There was no bruise, no pain. Instead, his skin was stretched all around the blonde's fist, like he'd thrown a punch against a rubber training dummy instead of his former friend's face.

No one quite understood what happened, least of all Izuku, who could only stare dumbly at the fist stuck in his right cheek.

When he glanced at the other boy, the expression he saw was almost enough to make him laugh. Kacchan was gaping in shock, eyes disbelieving.

But when he saw Izuku staring, his eyes narrowed into a much more familiar angry glare. His fist fell away from his cheek suddenly, and the skin _rippled_ before it reformed back into the shape of his usual face.

Before Izuku could think too hard about this fact, Kacchan was pulling his arm back again, and swinging another punch right at him. This time, though he flinched instinctively, he didn't close his eyes, and he could see the way the punch _sinked_ into his skin, easily absorbing the blow with absolutely zero pain.

This time, Kacchan didn't let his hand linger, as he quickly pulled it away as though it'd been burned, once he realized the same thing had happened, and his attack failed completely.

With language that would no doubt get five-year-old Bakugou Katsuki a slap upside the head and an annoying lecture from his mother (even though he'd learned it straight from her own _fucking_ mouth in the first place), he blurted out, more confused than angry now that he realized this was actually happening.

 _"Deku, what the fuck?"_


	2. The First Change

**A/N: they probably don't act or talk like they are actually five years old. i am so sorry, i have no frame of reference for what children are actually like, lol. have some drama and angst anyway. also, this was meant to be like, much shorter, but they kept having things to say about each other and i really wanted to emphasize how this moment was kinda a serious turning point for both, so here we go.**

* * *

 _Midoriya Izuku had always dreamed of becoming a hero, just like All Might._

-o-

For his first ever heroic act, where he selflessly defended the weak despite his own perceived failings, he succeeded in an incredible trick—

Yeah, Midoriya had no idea what he just did.

Somehow, instead of getting his entire body bruised black and blue for his efforts, he was… completely fine. Sort of. Was he really fine, when he had no idea why or how his skin was suddenly some strange rubbery material all of a sudden?

-o-

 _"Language, Kacchan."_

The instinctive reply came before Midoriya really knew what he was saying, the easy words at odds with his entire shocked demeanor. Though the punch had not hurt him at all, had not even winded him, it sure felt like his entire world had been knocked over with it.

He didn't understand.

-o-

 _(It would take years before Midoriya understood it all, in its entirety, and even then, quirks were such uniquely personal and impossibly amazing things, they were always changing and evolving along with their users._

 _It didn't help that after certain incidents, he'd developed something of an aversion to scientists wanting to research his quirk. The only people he trusted with such things was himself, or one of his classmates from 1-A, but considering all of them were active pro heroes, that didn't leave much time for consuming research._

 _That was fine though. Midoriya had always worked best in the heat of the moment, after all, and he'd never been afraid to gamble.)_

-o-

"Deku. What. The. Fuck. Was. That?"

At least he understood this. Bakugou was gritting his teeth, violently grinding them as he spat out each word like a bullet. Anger shone clearly in his eyes again, momentarily overcoming the confusion.

Despite the fact that said anger was clearly directed at him, and the blonde looked about a second away from trying to punch him again, even though it clearly didn't work, Midoriya almost breathed a sigh of relief.

At least this was familiar ground. This didn't make his head spin and his chest ache, as he wondered what was wrong with him this time.

Too wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn't realize Bakugou had walked right up to him until he was rather violently shaking his shoulders, _"Deku!"_

"I.. I d-don't know what h-happened!" He finally managed to stutter out, voice small at plaintive as he tried not to look at angry boy's stare head on. At this close distance, no matter how familiar it was, it did not make it any less intimidating or scary.

As if sensing it, Bakugou let go with a shove, that despite not hurting him, did send him stumbling back. It wasn't even that strong or rough a shove, really, but his legs felt weak and shaky. He fell to the floor with a thud.

Were they made of rubber now too?

-o-

 _(They were.)_

-o-

He didn't know.

Because at the moment, Midoriya was five years old, nearly six, and he'd never been able to turn his body into rubber before.

What he _could_ do, because he'd received his quirk months ago, was glow in the dark. He could turn his skin aglow with a pretty green tint that was his favorite color.

Or, at least, he was supposed to.

As he quickly discovered when he tried to do it now, he couldn't anymore. The familiar warmth that he could once conjure up in his body easy as breathing was nowhere to be found.

-o-

 _He couldn't glow anymore._

-o-

Even during the day, though his glow was not easily visible to others, it was always perfectly clear to him. He could feel the warmth inside of him, like a comforting blanket was thrown over him, and it was one he could call on any time.

But now, no matter how hard he tried, he felt nothing. He felt cold. Now, no matter how much he called, no warmth, no glow, came to him.

Somehow, it was _this_ fact, not the one where he'd suddenly gained the ability to be a human training dummy that completely disconcerted him.

-o-

 _(All power had a price. To gain something, you lost something too. That was the thing about his quirk, that few people realized the significance of.)_

-o-

The guilt and regret came over him like a wave, drowning him until it felt like he was choking from it. Swiftly, shocked changed to panic, and he felt his heart tremble wildly in his chest.

What had he done?

-o-

 _In an instant, a moment of weakness, he'd hated his own quirk and wished for another._

-o-

There was a reason they said to be careful what you wish for.

-o-

His voice took on a desperate tone, as he turned wide and pleading eyes at his childhood friend, _"Kacchan, I can't glow!"_

Part of him knew that Bakugou held no more answers for him. He was the one asking what happened, after all. Yet, he could not help it. Despite it all, everything Bakugou had said and done, Midoriya still looked to him.

-o-

 _When Bakugou led, Midoriya followed without question, eyes forever wide with admiration._

-o-

Midoriya knew, of course, that he had changed. Bakugou wasn't the same little boy who'd watched All Might videos with him and ate dinner at his house.

He wasn't Kacchan anymore, no matter what he called him.

And _yet._

-o-

 _(Midoriya had always been the type to commit to lost causes, to look at hopeless odds and rush forward anyway. Long before he had his quirk, he was just a boy who continued to follow after another, long after the boy wanted him to._

 _Maybe he was an idiot for thinking that way, and really, he'd always had something of a self-destructive streak,_

 _But he never ever gave up, no matter what.)_

-o-

Katsuki took one look at him, at his wide watery eyes, at the way he trembled on the ground like a leaf in the wind, and he growled, frustrated, unsure what to do. It was a feeling that he did not feel often, and he hated it when he did. It made him feel weak. And he was not weak.

Not like _Deku._

The sight of his watery gaze was a familiar one. He was used to seeing the other boy cry. Even before he'd started picking on him for being quirkless, and then, having a stupid quirk, he'd always been a big crybaby.

Katsuki just wanted him to _stop_ , already.

-o-

 _(Why did he keep following him around? Why did he keep wanting to be a hero, when he was so weak?_

 _…but, then, he stopped his punch, didn't he?_

 _Didn't that make Katsuki even weaker than Deku, then? )_

-o-

Both of them loved All Might and dreamed of becoming heroes.

They were fast friends, best friends even.

-o-

He clenched his fists, watched the way stupid Deku was still looking at him, the way he always was. This was something he knew, at least.

So he shook his head, announcing firmly, "Fuck, let's go, then."

-o-

 _Bakugou Katsuki had always dreamed of being a hero like All Might._

-o-

In the end, maybe that was enough.

-o-

Whatever response Izuku expected from his pleading gaze, it wasn't that. Well, he expected the bad word, at least, because Kacchan was always saying them, even though they weren't supposed to be.

But he didn't understand what followed. That was happening a lot today, he thought, before he asked aloud, confused, "Go?"

"To your _house_ , idiot!" Kacchan grumbled, looking like he wanted to punch him again.

But he hardly noticed it, because the words sent a wave of realization through him. Midoriya stopped shaking so much, a measure of calm entering him as the idea registered. Home. Where his mother was at. She would know what to do, he realized, with the kind of complete confidence only children could possess.

Nodding, his voice was only slightly shaky as he replied, "R-right." Slowly, he picked himself off the ground. It was a bit more challenging than he thought, as on thought of his weirdly rubbery legs, he still had the remnants of jittery nerves from his brief panic attack.

After entirely too long, he managed to stand up. Kacchan was looking impatiently at him. Cringing a little, he tried to hasten the pace, as he stepped forward quickly.

That was a mistake.

Still unused to his new legs, he was clumsy with his movements. Trying to do anything with any kind of speed resulted in him stumbling, and with another soft thud, he fell to the ground once more.

-o-

 _(There was a reason, why people liked routines. They made people feel comfortable and safe. You were confident, when you were used to something and new what to do._

 _His quirk was kind of the complete opposite of that, each and every time. He eventually learned to recognize similarities and difference between quirks, to trace patterns and utilize his quirk to its true potential so that he minimized the drawbacks_

 _But there was always, always that moment of confusion and fear, when he had no idea what he could do, when he was forced to adapt to a different quirk that completely changed him in ways he didn't yet know.)_

-o-

Bakugou growled again, his frustration reaching a boiling point that caused his hands to spark and smoke from his quirk. The sight of it was enough to make Midoriya start trembling again.

Though the boy had never actually hurt him using his quirk-even he knew how dangerous that was, and besides, his fists alone were more than enough to handle useless Deku-and though he knew that it literally could not harm him anymore now, Midoriya flinched anyway. "S-sorry, Kacchan."

Wary of the other boy's growing temper, he tried to get up again, as swiftly as he could while remaining careful. There was no point if he only ended up tumbling down again, after all. When he finally managed to right himself again, he saw Bakugou grinding his teeth, looking conflicted, which for him, translated to looking more angry. At least his hands weren't sparking.

Before he could apologize again, the blonde suddenly turned his back on him, making his eyes widen in alarm.

 _Was he leaving him behind?_ The thought left Izuku feeling cold. _But why was he even surprised?_

-o-

It was hardly the first time.

-o-

 _Bakugou Katsuki had always wanted to be a hero like All Might, and Midoriya Izuku had always shared that same dream._

-o-

But that was all they shared, because while Midoriya was small and shy and weak, Bakugou was strong and fierce and incredible. He was always shooting forward to new heights before anyone else and hardly waited for anyone to catch up, and certainly not Deku.

Even before he changed, that had been the same. He'd always been the first one to move, always the one in front of them, while the rest of them could only try to catch up left he leave them behind.

-o-

In time, that would change.

 _(Oh, how it would change.)_

-o-

Izuku was ready for that to happen again, for him to watch Kacchan's back steadily grow smaller as he stalked away, leaving him behind like the useless Deku he always said he was.

Instead, the blonde suddenly spoke up, ordering, with clear finality, _"Get on my back."_

For a long moment, Izuku could only look on dumbly, incomprehension all over on his face. What was happening was so outside his expectations that he could hardly believe his own eyes, let alone actually make a single move.

-o-

Bakugou Katsuki had always dreamed of being a hero like All Might.

-o-

 _(Of course, no one ever hesitated to take a helping hand from All Might, like they always tended to, with him._

 _Rescue missions were not Bakugou's forte._

 _Even after growing up and getting a handle on his temper, he may have been a good hero, but he was not exactly a nice one. Much like Endeavor before him, though to a lesser extent, he was not particularly popular amongst civilians despite his impressive record against villains.)_

-o-

Of course, Bakugou always found a way.

"Get. On. Deku!" The force of each word was enough to knock Midoriya out of his daze.

Hardly able to refuse, Izuku shakily made his way over, much more carefully this time. He knew better than to rush it now. Eventually, he found himself on the other boy's back, arms wrapped loosely (mostly because they were also rather rubbery) around his neck so he wouldn't fall off.

Now, Bakugou was pretty strong for a five-year-old, but even he would not have normally been able to carry Midoriya on his back.

 _Normally,_ that was.

At the moment, it seemed like the green-haired boy was much much lighter than usual, and really only slightly heavier than his backpack.

Soon as Midoriya had stopped moving, Bakugou started off, immediately heading out the park to the green-haired boy's house.

-o-

"Uhh, should we go too?" One of the other kids, who up until this moment, had only watched the events unfold without speaking, finally piped up as they neared the exit.

Caught up with everything that had happened, Izuku had nearly forgotten he wasn't alone with Kacchan. The entire time, the small group of other kids who gathered around Bakugou, as well as the victim of the bullying Midoriya had stepped forward for, were silently watching the proceeding with stunned looks on their faces.

The victim especially, a quiet boy that Midoriya had never actually spoken to before today, looked quite shocked by the blonde's sudden helpfulness. He could understand the sentiment, to be honest.

And in that same spirit of honesty, though he'd spent just as much time around them as Kacchan, Izuku wasn't sure he'd call any of them his friends. Even before they all took turns teasing (bullying) him under the blonde's command, they'd never been very close. The only thing they'd had in common was that they all hung around Kacchan, after all. So the only reason they hung around each other was him. And when the blonde was not around, they didn't bother talking or hanging out with each other.

Put simply, they were Kacchan's friends, not his.

-o-

 _(Though they were less friends than followers, really. Sychopants, if he was forced to be perfectly honest about it. Minions, as Bakugou would call it, even less charitably._

 _In the end, when he looked back, he wasn't sure any of them were actually friends with each other. Certainly not like the kind he'd gained when he studied in U.A. anyway. Or the kind he and Bakugou eventually became._

 _But that had been a work in progress for a long time.)_

-o-

As per usual, Izuku waited for Bakugou to speak up, and he didn't have to wait long.

Kacchan spoke up for him, rolling his eyes as he stalked off even faster, "Who the fuck cares? Do whatever you idiots want."

Without another word, he stalked out off the park, not even bothering to look back as he carried Midoriya on his back like a sack of potatoes, in that he did not at all care about safety or comfort and roughly jostled him with each step, with the boy barely hanging on. Needless to say, he didn't look back either.

-o-

None of them followed.

They did, however, tell absolutely everyone else in their kindergarten class, as they would later find out.

-o-

 _(As fast as All Might could move, as quick as Iida could be, nothing travelled faster than gossip. A fact Midoriya learned to be true entirely too many times throughout his lifetime, much to his embarrassment and consternation._

 _When he'd once ended up changing his quirk to a memory manipulating one, he'd almost never wanted to change it just for the fact that it meant he could erase gossip before it began._

 _It was a shockingly villainous consideration from the normally moral hero was known as. But, really, no other pro hero would have stopped him, considering._

 _Hero gossip was perhaps the worst evil of all.)_

-o-

The park they were in hadn't been too far from him house. It was only about a fifteen minute walk.

They managed it in ten.

-o-

Bakugou wasn't called amazing just for his quirk, after all.

-o-

He'd hardly been slowed down by Midoriya on his back at all. Though since he didn't weigh much with his current body, maybe that wasn't too surprising. It probably helped too, that even though Bakugou hadn't been by in months now, he still knew the path like the back of his hand. He could even find it blindfolded in the dark. Then again, his own house wasn't all that far away, after all.

Regardless of the reasons, they made it back in record time, and they were soon standing on the doorsteps that led into the Midoriya house.

Izuku breathed a sigh in relief at the mere sight of it, his eyes wide and shining with hope. It quickly shifted into a startled gasp though, as Bakugou was less than gentle in settling him down on said doorstep, roughly dropping him like a hot stone.

With his strange new quirk, it wasn't like it would hurt, but the suddenness was startling, and he couldn't help his instinctive stunned reproach, which sounded all too close to a whine, _"Kacchan!"_

"Shut up, Deku." He growled back, stretching his back and limbs as he did so, clearly strained from the effort of carrying the other boy on his back so quickly. Even with the lessened weight, it hadn't been easy.

It was a sight which made Izuku cringe with guilt. Maybe it wasn't technically his fault, since Bakugou had volunteered-or really, ordered it happen. But the entire situation was his fault because his quirk randomly disappeared, or changed, or something completely impossible.

-o-

 _(Then again, that had only happened because Bakugou had decided to start bullying other people aside from Midoriya, and the aspiring hero in him had stepped forward before he could even think about it._

 _Maybe a tiny, bitter part of him, the one who could only cringe and cry everytime his former friend treated him like he was little better than trash-Deku-thought he deserved this and more._

 _But he squashed that part down. Because that wasn't what heroes did-)_

-o-

So, because he Midoriya Izuku, because he was Deku, he apologized anyway, "S-sorry, Kacchan."

"Whatever." The blonde shook off the words with a shake of his head, an unreadable look in his eyes. There was a moment of tense silence, when it seemed like

Then, Bakugou scoffed, huffing impatiently as he ordered him again, "Just ring the damn doorbell already."

"R-right." He took in a deep breath, trying to steel himself, as he slowly, carefully, approached the door on shaky feet, before he knocked on the door. Depending on where his mother was and what she was doing, it could take a while. Frowning impatiently at the door, he turned around, mouth open to ask how long he thought it would be.

But when he did, he realized the other boy was walking away.

 _"Kacchan? W-wait!"_ He called put desperately, unthinkingly taking a quick step forward. Not his smartest idea, seeing as it immediately resulted in him tripping over his own rubbery feet again and he fell to the ground with another thud.

But he didn't even care, as he raised his head to track Bakugou's disappearing form, with watery eyes.

The blonde never even looked back.


	3. Quirk: Rubber Body

That was how Midoriya Inko found her son, lying face first on the ground, an arm stretched out towards the street outside. He was not moving, and for one horrible heart-stopping moment, she feared the worst.

But then, she saw it—-barest tremble of his shoulders, which was followed up by a faint sad sob that broke free into the air, before it was choked off. Despite the fact that something was clearly wrong still, she breathed a small sigh of relief for the fact that at least it was not her worst nightmares come to life.

Nonetheless, she could not stop the panic and the nerves, as she wondered exactly what had happened. Quickly approaching him and kneeling down to help him up, she asked as gently as she could while worry had her wrapped in a vice, "Izuku, dear, what's wrong?"

He didn't answer immediately, or respond to her help, but he did not resist it either, and soon, he was sitting upright at least. A look-over revealed no obvious injuries, though his clothes were slightly scuffed and dirtied from being on the ground.

Haltingly, he began to speak, lip trembling, "M-my q-q-quirk…"

-o-

It took a while for Izuku to explain the situation, through his hiccupping and stuttering, but really, all he needed to do was show his mother the way he could no longer stand and walk properly, before his body was suddenly no longer flesh and bone, but some weird rubbery material. And while Inko didn't exactly punch him to test his new ability to take damage, even simply poking him gently produced a similar effect.

Needless to say, she was about as shocked as he first was—-and still was, to be completely honest—but, faced with the fact that her son was clearly distraught over this situation, she forced herself to strangle down the panic so she could remain calm and take over.

 _(She had no way of knowing that however much Izuku was worried over his sudden change, and the fact that his body was not responding like it used to, he was perhaps even more worried about the constant state of flux that was his relationship with Bakugou instead._

 _Really though, after the way the other boy had simply left him behind without another, after helping him and giving him a piggyback ride, who could blame him for being confused and disappointed?)_

In any case, Inko quickly took charge of the situation, getting out her phone to call a taxi so they could head to a hospital. While he didn't seem to be in life threatening danger from what she could see, a quirk suddenly changing was unheard of, and she had no idea what the effects actually were. They needed to make sure everything was alright.

-o-

By the time a taxi arrived, Izuku was pulled out of his thoughts and reminded of his current situation, especially as Inko gently nudged him towards the car. He attempted to walk himself. It was a slow process, but he mostly managed it, feeling slightly embarrassed by the way he had to hold his mother's hand to do it. Still, it was better than having her carry him.

Izuku wasn't a little kid, after all. He was five years old already.

( _He was so young, then. So, so young. Still just a dumb little kid who had no idea what was about to happen._ )

-o-

But he still didn't let go of his mother's hand, even once he was safely inside of the car, with little danger of tripping over his own feet.

With his strange new rubbery body, he could barely feel the sensation of his hand in hers. Yet even the faint sensation was enough of a comfort, a reminder, that he wasn't alone, and she was there.

-o-

The receptionist hadn't seemed to impressed when they explained what happened. Mostly, she seemed to think they were lying about it all. But she made the appointment and told them to wait all the same.

-o-

Eventually, they were taken to a doctor specializing in quirks.

He wasn't half as skeptical as the receptionist, and seemed to believe their story almost immediately. It probably helped that he had the medical records on hand clearly stating Izuku's quirk was supposed to be simple Bioluminescence, even though he was now demonstrably _unable_ to glow, and instead, seemed to have an altogether different quirk instead.

The doctor called it Rubber Body, and as the name implied, it made it so that his entire body has the properties of rubber.

This meant that any kind of blow or touch against him either sunk into his skin or bounced off, depending on how light it was. Because of the rubbery quality of his skin, he couldn't feel sensations half as well as he used to either, as holding his mother's hand has proved, and, after some testing—which involved holding a hot compress and some ice cubes, alternately—it seemed he couldn't feel temperatures too much either. Though he could still tell when something was hot or cold, to him, it was more like it was merely mildly warm or cool, instead. He probably wouldn't need to bundle up so much during winters, at least.

If that wasn't enough, it turned out that his body could also _stretch_ itself like rubber too. Though it was initially done by the doctor literally pulling his finger as far as it could go—which turned out to be quite far—Izuku realized he could do it himself too, though it took much more effort and conscious thought. He just wasn't to being able to stretch himself that much. It was like using muscles he never realized existed.

After another series of tests conducted by the doctor, it was concluded that he was able to stretch his limbs up to a maximum length of about two meters, but he could not hold them there for long, only for a few seconds at most. He could hold position at shorter distances more easily. None of it actually hurt him, though he did begin to feel a certain strain if he tried going further than his maximum distance.

Even so, Izuku could hardly believe it. His worry had slowly become replaced with excitement, as each new test revealed a new incredible facet to his new quirk, which was truly _amazing!_

-o-

 _Midoriya Izuku had always dreamed of being a hero like All Might._

-o-

With his new quirk, it was more than possible.

Indeed, the possibilities were nearly as flexible as his new rubbery body, because he could absorb any villain's blows, and he could stretch his limbs to punch them back from a distance. He could use his body like a shield for helpless civilians or even fellow heroes. He could stretch himself taller and climb to greater heights.

-o-

 _He could be a hero._

-o-

Even though it definitely had its drawbacks—like the fact that he still had trouble walking if he did it above a snail's pace—there were more than enough _benefits_ to outweigh it.

The doctor assured that his issues with his quirk would fade with time and practice too, and that the only reason he was having trouble walking was because he wasn't _used_ to having his body be like this.

A problem he wouldn't have had, if this quirk had appeared when it was actually supposed to. Namely, as soon as he was born. Because his new quirk couldn't be turned off, it meant it was a mutation type. That usually meant they were present at birth.

Yet, somehow, his wasn't.

Instead, he'd been born with no visible quirks at all, and had only developed his quirk— _Glowing Skin_ —-recently.

-o-

Yeah, Midoriya had no idea how that worked.

Neither did the doctor, it seemed.

-o-

"A quirk _changing_ -it's unprecedented!" His round glasses seemed to shine, and his tone was excited, intrigued. It was, frankly, more than a little intimidating, and Midoriya shrunk back from his attentions almost immediately.

His mother curled a hand around his shoulder, before asking, with a clear sense of worry, "So you don't know what happened?"

The man _tsked_ audibly, wagging his finger as he corrected, "Now, now, I did not say that. I have some theories, of course. However, I do not wish to colour your perceptions or give you any wrong impressions, so I hold off on sharing them until they can be confirmed as the absolute truth."

"I… see." Inko answered slowly, looking rather like she wished to know these theories anyway, but she didn't say anything more, not with her son next to her.

The doctor continued on, "For the moment, I believe it would be best for your son to simply get adjust to your new quirk, so that he will be able to move around with his previous ease. I recommend consulting with a physical therapist to create a program that will maximize this."

He wrote the contact information for his recommended colleague down on a slip of paper and gave it to Inko, who felt more relieved at this. Though the mystery of the circumstances worried her, the most important thing was the knowledge that her son would be fine. She gave a reassuring smile at him, which he returned, one tinged with a cautious hope.

They left, then, with the doctor's parting words for them being, "Please, contact me again if there are any other issues and continue to observe your quirk for any other _changes_."

-o-

( _Later, Izuku would think of the strange emphasis the doctor had placed on the word, and would realize, even then, he'd known, or at least, suspected, what his_ real _quirk actually was._

 _Really, he should've realized it himself sooner, considering there were signs everywhere, when he thought it over. But hindsight was always 20/20, after all, and frankly, who would've even considered that a quirk like his could've existed?_

 _It was unprecedented, after all.)_

-o-

Midoriya took about a week off from school, after that, seeing as he couldn't really move around properly yet, and spent most of his time getting used to his quirk. They had consulted the therapist as recommended, and given a list of exercises he could do at home to help his recovery.

It was slow going, but it was working, he thought.

It was also really, _really_ weird.

-o-

( _He'd get that feeling a_ lot _over the years. It was never easy adjusting to a completely new quirk, and even when he found quirks with a lot of similarities, there was always just enough differences to make the entire experience feel a little weird, anyway.)_

-o-

Embarrassingly enough, it was a lot like he was a baby again and just learning how to walk for the first time. That was a blow to his self-esteem. But on the plus side, he was also discovering just how helpful his quirk could be too.

Such as the fact that he could now grab the cookies his mother kept hidden on the top shelf all by himself, anytime, which was perhaps the most amazing thing of all.

In any case, by the end of the week, he could mostly walk and move around without tripping over himself. Of course, he still couldn't run very fast, or he'd trip again, but he was getting better and more used to it, bit by bit.

It was enough that he could return to class again, at least.

-o-

Midoriya Izuku had never been very popular or well-known amongst his classmates. He didn't really have any friends besides Kacchan, and most times, it was hard to count the boy as one, even if he didn't like to think of it that way.

But on the day of his return, his entire class, as well as a crowd of teachers and staff, all crowded around him.

It was the most eyes and attention Midoriya had ever had on him, and he was rather quickly overwhelmed.

-o-

( _Midoriya never really got used to it, not even as the number one Pro Hero. Certainly, he had learned how to fake it a little better, at least, so that his nervousness wasn't completely obvious to everyone even from a telescopic distance._

 _But in his heart, he had never stopped being the shy four-year-old who no one ever paid any attention to because there was little interesting about him._ )

-o-

His classmates didn't know what to think of his sudden new quirk. At least, he didn't actually have to say anything about it, seeing as what happened had long spread through his entire school. Of course, there were plenty who didn't believe said rumours. It didn't help that the story had gotten more convoluted the more it got shared, and by now, there was everything ranging from him getting kidnapped and experimented on by villains that changed his quirk, to him getting bitten by a radioactive glowing spider that gave him the ability to shoot rubber bands from his hands.

And those were the just the snippets he could here. Every second it felt like there were ten more.

 _"What happened?"_

Izuku opened his mouth to try to explain, but he couldn't even start when someone else piped up.

 _"Did you really die and come back to life as a mannequin?"_

 _Wait, what?_ His brows furrowed in disbelief and confusion. He denied firmly, _"N-no!"_

 _"So you don't glow anymore?"_

Izuku simply shook his head at that one, a brief twinge in his heart at the thought, but it was all too easy to ignore it when there were so many other things taking up his attention at the moment.

 _"You're lying!"_

 _"No one can just change quirks like that."_

 _"Yeah. If it really changed, then prove it!"_

 _"Show us your new quirk!"_

The crowd seemed to reach a consensus at that, and looking around at everyone's expectant gazes, Izuku felt his heart race nervously. Forcing himself to calm down and remember what he'd practice, he slowly stretched his legs as far as they could go, until he was towering over all his other classmates, and then, even taller than many of the adults. From his new height, he could see everyone clearly, and the way they were all looking up at him in shock and awe.

From here, he could also see Bakugou in one corner, away from the crowd, an unreadable expression on his face.

Abruptly, he found himself snapping back to his old height, the suddenness of his action causing him to stumble into one of his classmates. "S-sorry," he apologized instinctively, but his thoughts were still on Kacchan, and he felt his stomach twist nervously at the thought of the other boy.

What did he think about all this?

 _Deku._

Was he still useless with his new quirk, that could now take any punch or kick from him without any effort?

He didn't have much time to linger on such thoughts though, because everyone was soon on him again, a sea of questions and exclamations, all talking about how cool and awesome his new quirk was.

It was the kind of thing he'd dreamed about, when he was still a quirkless boy, waiting for his turn to be _special._

Though he was still overwhelmed and unused to the attention, he found that he liked it. His heart warmed at all the words of praise, and he smiled nervously at them all, stuttering out his thank yous with a shyness that made the adults coo over how cute he was.

-o-

Alone, in one corner, Bakugou frowned harder.

-o-

Things changed after that.

Izuku had never been particularly popular or had many friends, but for the first few weeks back, he was what most people talked about. He'd been invited to play and eat more times in the past week alone than he had his entire life. It was a strange and disconcerting feeling. Not entirely unpleasant, but it was definitely weird.

The weirdest of all, was the fact that throughout it all, Kacchan did not speak a single word to him.

Oh, he would talk _about_ him, like when some brave and possibly stupid soul had told him that Izuku could not beat him in a find since none of his blows could land, Bakugou would growl and say tha _t a Deku would always be a Deku_ , no matter his quirk.

That _hurt_.

Because, no matter how many other people wanted to be his friend now, the one person he'd always wanted, he'd continued to consider his friend despite all the things he said and did-the other boy didn't feel the same way he did.

-o-

 _(It would take years and years, and a more mature Bakugou, and entirely too much alcohol to help loosen lips before he would ever admit something even close to it to Izuku's face. The entire speech had been shockingly sentimental and the both of them had been in tears by the end of it, hugging it out in a way they pretty much hadn't done since they were both tiny toddler who didn't know anything._

 _Thankfully, someone-probably Ochako and/or Kirishima-had managed to get the entire confession on film, so that it would be immortalized forever._

 _Bakugou would burn the tape as soon as possible, of course, but soft copies were forever, especially once they got circulated on the internet under the hashtag #BakugouHasAHeartAfterAll. The video itself would accumulated nearly a billion views and half a million likes, and would forever be immortalized in Pro Hero fandom history._

 _Izuku had his own copy tucked away in a secret folder for him to view anytime Bakugou was being particularly frustrating, annoying or hurtful, to remind himself that the big jerk was actually a good guy and friend underneath it all._

 _Sometimes, he also just liked to watch it for a laugh. Few things were as funny as a tearfully sentimental Bakugou Katsuki who had snot dripping from his nose, after all)_

-o-

But the the more things changed, the more things stayed the same. Or, maybe it was simply that some things never changed.

Either way, despite his new quirk and the newfound popularity it brought him, and even with all the ways Bakugou continued to insult and ignore him, Midoriya continued to follow Bakugou around like he'd always did.

And if there was a certain new tension now underneath it all, then, maybe that was just part of growing up.

-o-

 _When Bakugou led, Midoriya followed without question, eyes forever wide with admiration._

-o-

Then, one day, Bakugou slipped.

And Midoriya reached out-grabbing desperately onto his hand with his stretched out arms.

For a moment, they'd stopped there, Bakugou dangling over the edge with only Midoriya to keep him from falling.

For a moment, Midoriya had thought he would let go-that the blonde would rather fall than allow himself to be helped by a _Deku_ like him.

But then, his lips twitched into something that might've been a smirk on his face, before he grabbed tighter onto Midoriya's arms and spoken to him for the first time since he'd returned, "Well, what're you waiting for? Pull me up already."

So, he did, and in the end, Bakugou had looked at him, another unreadable expression on his space, before he scoffed, and there was something like approval in his tone as he told him, "Hmph. Maybe you such aren't Deku after all."

-o-

( _If Midoriya had hoped not to be saddled with the name anymore after that, well, it was a lost hope._

 _Bakugou would continue to forever call him Deku, but it wasn't the insult it used to be anymore, not when it was no longer followed up by rants about he was never going to be a hero with his pointless quirk._

 _Over the years, it had just become another nickname, one that he used out of habit, more than anything. It was Bakugou's mark of affection, honestly, tsundere that he was. Especially since he was the only one allowed to use it. Well, aside from Urakara. But then, she was a special case, after all, and really, even Bakugou was a little wary of going up against her.)_

-o-

Things weren't quite like how they used to, before they developed their quirks, back when they were still innocent, unknowing children who both loved heroes and All Might. It was impossible to go back to that, after everything they'd been through, but it was… closer than it had been in ages.

That wasn't to say the blonde was suddenly nice to him, or anyone else. Kacchan was still Kacchan, after all. In fact, he was more physically violent with Izuku than ever, taking advantage of the fact that he couldn't really be hurt, and turning him essentially into a training dummy.

The green-haired boy didn't mind too much, since it was good training for both of them. Izuku learned that there was an upper limit to how much he could absorb until he started to feel it, for one.

Even if he did sometimes wish Kacchan wouldn't be quite so eager to test this upper limit of his, it made the other boy _happy_ , and, really, that was enough.

What were friends for, right?

-o-

( _His friendship with Kacchan had always been a complicated one._

 _It could probably be better described as an unhealthy one. In truth, neither of them had ever had much experience with friendships until they arrived in U.A., so maybe it wasn't really their fault that they'd had no idea how to unpack their issues with each other to not let their friendship fester into something toxic._

 _Everyone else liked to just blame Bakugou for being a bully and a jerk, but, really, Midoriya had always enabled him, had never once to stood up for himself or fought back. In fact, he'd always been the one to follow the blonde around, even when it was clear that he wasn't exactly wanted._

 _Neither of them had really known what they were doing, when it came to friendship, and boy, did it show. All relationships were a two-way street, after all.)_

-o-

In the end, the only lasting change his new quirk brought to his personal relationships seemed to be with Bakugou, because after a few weeks, everyone got used to his new quirk. Midoriya didn't completely fade into the background again, but he was certainly no longer subject to constant stares and whispers. Gossip was always travelling at light speed and children had short attention spans. Izuku's new quirk was quickly old news.

Soon enough, after a few more months, everyone graduated from kindergarten to elementary school, and most people seemed to forget that he ever had a different quirk at all. Many of his old classmates went to different schools, and Kacchan certainly didn't mention it.

In time, it almost felt like he'd had this quirk all along.

Some days, Izuku could almost forget about it, about his first quirk, and the fact that he'd once been able to glow bright as a star, in the darkness. It was all too easy to believe he'd always had this new rubbery body, once he got used to it.

-o-

Maybe this was how it was _supposed_ to be.

His first quirk was some weird mistake. So, this was life or fate or whoever was in charge of these things, correcting that mistake.

It hurt, of course, to think of his old quirk as a _mistake_ , to think of the warmth, the light, and think of it as _wrong_.

But what else could he do?

When his new was clearly _right_.

-o-

 _Midoriya Izuku had always dreamed of being a hero like All Might._

-o-

His new quirk was super cool, after all.

He could stretch his arms out and reach far away things without getting up, and he could stretch out his legs so he was almost as tall as an adult!

He couldn't be physically hurt anymore, at least, not by punches or kicks, or against table corners.

Still, Midoriya could be a _hero_ now. With his amazing new quirk, fit for a hero.

Even Kacchan didn't disagree anymore. He stopped telling him his quirk was stupid and useless, that his dream of being a hero was impossible. Instead, he told him that maybe _he could even be his sidekick or something!_

-o-

It was all he had ever hoped for.

And if he sometimes missed his glow, especially when he was lying in bed at night in the dark, where every shadow seemed to jump out at him, then it was fine.

If he sometimes missed being able to feel things in a way he didn't, now that he was all rubbery, that was fine too.

Because Izuku was going to become a hero like All Might, and so, he smiled too.

-o-

 _But all good things come to an end._

-o-

One day, nearly nine months after the day Izuku suddenly lost his ability to glow and gained a new rubber body, he found his entire world turned upside down for the second time, because _his quirk changed again_.


	4. The True Quirk

_The only true constant in life was change._

Midoriya Izuku would soon come to learn just how true that was.

 _(Oh, how true it was.)_

-o-

In the end, all it took to unravel everything was a single bad day.

Not even the whole day. All it took was a bad _morning_ , really. Just a series of unfortunate events, mostly connected to his quirk, that kept building up and wearing down on his patience until he lost control.

In the end, all in had really taken was a single moment-a single slip of control, where he'd allowed his frustrations to overwhelm him, and let his mind be overcome by the thought.

-o-

 _(His quirk was literally_ change. _So any time he didn't-any time he let any single quirk he changed into linger too long-it started getting antsy._

 _It would start looking for any opportunity to force a change on him. Little things would start to affect him more, and in the end, even a facetious thought or a sarcastic quip could be enough for his quirk to activate, despite his actual wishes._

 _There were always horror stories about people who didn't use their quirks, for some reason or another, for a reason. It was an important and natural part of you, after all. In a lot of ways, it was the equivalent of not using a limb or one of your senses._

 _Sometimes, he wondered, if quirks were really a gift, or a curse.)_

-o-

It hadn't started out too bad.

Midoriya had been dreaming. It was a good dream, one where he was flying in the sky with All Might, and saving the day with him.

Then, he'd woken up.

Things started going downhill from there.

-o-

When he sleepily stretched with a yawn, he accidentally stretched his arm too far and knocked his alarm clock off the table. It fell to the floor with a loud crash, and, most unfortunately, broke from the force. That was bad enough as it was, but the fact that it was an All Might alarm clock, and he managed to essentially decapitate his hero by accident…

Izuku paled in horror at the sight, and may or may not have cried a little too.

 _(He did._

 _But he was six years old, a little emotionally unbalanced, and the possibly the biggest All Might fan in the world, so, really, it was hardly unexpected.)_

-o-

 _That was the first strike._

-o-

Much as he wanted to think of himself as a _big boy_ who could certainly handle his own problems, when it came to emergencies, he still ran to his mother.

He went to her now, too, bringing the broken pieces of his clock, and explaining what happened with a slight hiccup.

She took him the pieces from him carefully, placing them on top of a shelf, where they would be safe, before she gave him a hug and promised him they would fix it later, after school. The promise, and the soft words and the soft arms they were delivered with calmed him down immensely.

After a few moments, she let him go, telling him breakfast was ready now. Izuku managed a small smile, and headed for the dining table.

-o-

Once there, he slid into his chair-not All Might themed, alas, because his mother drew the lines at his obsession somewhere-and shakily picked up the bowl of miso soup on the table. Now that he wasn't completely consumed with worry for his broken clock, he realized he was hungry.

In his eagerness, he didn't notice the steam still wafting from the soup. Ignorantly, he took a large gulp-and immediately spat it all right back out, because it was scaldingly hot on his tongue.

While Izuku could now easily touch scaldingly hot objects with no ill effects, the same did not apply to his tongue, which remained as sensitive to temperatures as it used to be.

His burning tongue throbbed with pain, and he could feel his eyes start to sting from its effects, as well as the from the sight of the other effects of his actions.

Namely, the fact that miso soup was now over the front of his favorite All Might pajamas, and a good chunk of the table, including the rest of his breakfast, as the spat-out liquid, not to mention tiny bits of tofu and seaweed too, fell over his bowl of rice and part of the grilled mackerel on another plate.

-o-

 _That was the second strike._

-o-

At this point, he was more angry than sad. He futilely attempted to wipe his shirt with some tissues, but it was too little too late. The growl of frustration that slipped from his lips was soon matched by a growl from his stomach.

Clearly, today was going to be one of _those_ days.

Even so, he tried to look at the bright side, retain some of the sense of unfailing optimism All Might was so known for. At least his pajamas could be washed, and he could still eat the food, he thought. Well, probably, anyway. It didn't sounds very appetizing though. Maybe if he just took out the parts he'd spat on?

...Maybe his mother would be okay with cooking something else.

For the second time in a row, Midoriya went to find his mother.

-o-

She told him to change out of his damp pajamas and get himself ready for school, promising to fix breakfast once he finished. Midoriya did as she bid, and when he stepped out of the bathroom in his clothes for school, he felt a little better. He wasn't quite so hungry when he was distracted by getting ready, anyway.

Once he finished putting on his shoes, he started on fixing his things in his backpack. As he did so, however, he realized something very important. There was something missing.

The answers to his homework, to be perfectly exact.

With a small cry of horror, he realized he'd forgot to finish his homework! He was supposed to do it all last night, but he kept putting it off because of how frustrating it was.

After nearly a year of it, Midoriya was more or less used to the fact that his body was no longer simply flesh and bone, but made out of some rubbery material that he could easily stretch out.

This didn't mean he could always use it the way he wanted it though. His " _fine motor control_ ", was especially terrible now, because he had to relearn all of it with a new body.

Eating was an activity that often ended as a mess, and the incident with his miso soup was, frankly, not uncommon, though it was usually simply because his hand had shook too much and he ended up spilling it, not because he spat it out. And anytime he was forced to pick up a pencil, it was a truly herculean task that followed.

Like last night, for example.

He'd been getting increasingly frustrated about his hand being unable to properly grasp the pencil because it was too rubbery, and it just kept slipping through his flapping fingers, or he was somehow stretching his fingers by mistake, and he couldn't get a grip at all. Either way, he made very little progress with writing out his answers. It was especially frustrating because he knew what to do and what he was supposed to write.

He just couldn't actually properly write any of it out thanks to his stupid rubbery hands.

Needless to say, Midoriya attempting it again now, with his mood already incredibly soured by previous events, only soured more, when once again, his stupid quirk refused to cooperate. He was running out of time, and the pressure only caused him to make even more mistakes.

At the height of his frustration, his control slipped even more, and the pencil ended up embedded in the wall after an accidental stretch-enhanced anger-induced throw.

-o-

 _That was the third strike._

The final strike, that was the figurative straw that broke the camel's back, in other words.

-o-

 _Midoriya loved his quirk, he did. He did._

 _But._

 _He hated it too._

 _And in that moment, more than anything, despite his own previous convictions and feelings, he wished he had a different quirk—-_

-o-

At the thought, the familiar aching thought, Midoriya found himself frowning at his hands, he felt his body get suddenly very warm. It was almost familiar, because it used to do that, back when he glowed.

But it was different too, very different. He knew instinctive that this wasn't the sensation of his body glowing. This was… _something else._

It felt like his entire body was tingling, for one, and he shivered at the sensation. Though it didn't hurt, it felt weird, and he didn't understand it. Then, after a few moments, the feeling passed, and he sighed in relief.

Not for long though.

Because he very quickly realized that his hand could now grasp the crayon as easily as it once did, before the Incident that transformed his body from flesh and bone to rubber. With growing shock and horror, Midoriya realized his body was no longer rubbery and flexible.

Instead, with even more shock, he found that he'd grown two long floppy ears atop his head, and he could hear _everything_ around him incredibly well.

-o-

( _Later, he would laugh at this moment, at the sheer ridiculousness of the picture he painted, with his floppy rabbit ears on his tiny six-year-old head, and the comical over-dramatic way he screamed._

 _Of course, in the moment it happened though, the horror was all too real, and there was nothing funny at all about the sudden appearance of some animal's ears attached to his skull, not when it came with all new senses he had no idea how to handle._

 _It would take years before he would be able to recall the event it in his mind without the shock and horror tainting it. But eventually, looking back, it would become all too easy to see how amusing it was, to treat it like the funny childhood memory that it was._

 _Hindsight was funny like that.)_

-o-

Maybe it should've been easier, adjusting this time. At least, unlike last time, it wasn't his whole body changing material.

All he had were additional ears atop his head. But the enhanced hearing it came with was an even bigger adjustment than his body turning to rubber. The enhanced smell was even worse. He felt torn between a building headache and a growing urge to vomit from the overwhelming new sensations alone.

Then, once the realization of his situation hit, and he instinctively released scream of stunned horror coming from his own throat nearly deafened him-everything came to a head, then.

He literally passed out from the pain and shock of it all.

-o-

Once again, that was how Midoriya Inko found her son, lying face first on the ground, this time in the middle of his bedroom floor. Once again, he was not moving, and for one horrible heart-stopping moment, she feared the worst.

This time, there was no tremble of his shoulder, there was seemingly no movement at all, and all her fears did not abate, as she quickly made her way to his prone form, dropping to the ground beside him.

Her heart still caught in her throat, she carefully turned him over.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she saw the slow rise and fall of his chest. He was breathing-he was alive.

Unconscious, but _alive._ The worst case scenario confirmed to be false, she relaxed enough to take in the rest of the sight before her, and notice a new detail that soon made her previous panic return.

Atop his head, were a pair of furry pale green rabbit ears that were not there before, only fifteen or so minutes ago, when she last spoke to him.

She would've thought it part of some strange costume, if she didn't know that her son had no such thing in his possession, as well as the rather unsettling realization that one ear was _twitching._

 _It was part of him,_ Inko realized, with growing confusion and mounting panic. _Why did her son suddenly have rabbit ears on him?_

In any other situation, the sight might've been classified as adorable. Her son's sleeping face coupled with the ears were worthy of filling several albums of photography. But considering the actual circumstances, and the complete unknown they represented, she could feel only afraid for what it all meant.

Inko cradled her son in her arms, softly but urgently calling his name, trying to wake him up. She had no idea what else to do, or how else she could possibly help, when she had no clue what had happened to him.

If only all her son's issues could be as easily fixed as a broken alarm clock, she thought, with increasing hysteria.

-o-

Thankfully for his mother's poor heart, Izuku soon woke up on his own, though he was rather less thankful for the fact, considering how he felt once he did. It was like he'd been hit by a truck, the way his head throbbed and his throat ached.

Blinking blearily, his swimming vision eventually came into focus, and he saw his mother's worried face before him. For a moment, he forgot what happened, and he could only ask, confused, "M-mom? W-what.. is it?"

"I wanted to ask you that. I found you lying on the ground, sweetie."

But, slowly, he remembered, especially as he heard her answer ring entirely too loudly in his head. He had _rabbit ears_ now, not a rubber body.

Because he wished for it.

Cringing, he began to explain what happened, in a stuttering reply that never raised above a whisper.

-o-

Once more, his mother took charge and hailed a cab to take them to the hospital. This time, the trip was even more arduous than the last one. While Izuku had no trouble walking on his own feet towards said cab, he had trouble with nearly everything else.

It had been bad enough while still inside his house, where the noise was still buffered by walls and insulation. He'd literally passed out from his own screaming, after all.

But the moment he stepped outside the house, where the open air carried sounds from every direction all too easily, Midoriya was immediately immediately overwhelmed again, but this time, instead of losing consciousness-he vomited the contents of his meager breakfast all over his shoes.

To add insult to injury, they were his favorite sneakers too.

-o-

 _(Midoriya would really rather not recall it, but that happened a lot in his earlier years. Getting used to an entirely new quirk which often changed your physiology in completely unexpected ways was not a walk in the park, and there were definitely consequences._

 _He'd puked and passed out more times than he could count, had innumerable headaches and pains, and got into a lot of accidents, thanks to his quirk._

 _Change may have been constant, but it was definitely not easy.)_

-o-

Eventually, they managed it, with some creative usage of scarves and headphones to try to numb his overly sensitive new senses. He spent most of this time cradled in his mother's arms, as though she could protect him from the entire world and all the hurts in it.

-o-

They saw the doctor again, and this time, there was a real diagnosis.

It turned out his quirk was neither making his body glow nor having a body made of rubber nor having rabbit ears which gave him enhanced hearing.

His quirk, tentatively dubbed as "Quirk Change", gave him the ability to completely change his quirk when he wished it, and it was a completely new quirk that no one else had ever had before.

-o-

 _(A completely new quirk was rare, in today's modern era, after so many generations of heroes. Nearly every variation seemed to already exist in some form. The days when people awoke to new and exciting powers no one had ever heard of was long gone._

 _These days, most people simply inherited their parents' quirks or some variation of it. Getting a quirk completely different from theirs was a statistical anomaly already. Getting a completely different quirk from everybody else?_

 _Well, it was a_ miracle _, honestly.)_

-o-

But there needed to be confirmation first, of course. A theory was only a theory until sufficient evidence appeared to make it into truth.

Izuku was all too eager to do it, as his sensitive hearing and smell continued to overwhelm him, even within the much more quiet confines of the hospital room.

All things considering, it didn't take much effort to conjure up the feelings.

-o-

 _Maybe being able to hear even the smallest noise at such distances would make him a good hero, and maybe his sense of smell would become an invaluable asset in the future._

 _But in the here and now, it just hurt to have it. He didn't like the way every little noise made his headache, or the way all these strange smells were making him nauseous._

 _He didn't want this quirk-so, he wished for another._

-o-

It worked.


	5. Quirk Change

Izuku could tell immediately that his enhanced hearing and smell was gone, as they returned to his old, much more familiar state. A quick pat of his own head confirmed the rabbit ears were similarly missing, and the whiskers on his nose were also no longer present.

He breathed a sigh of relief, as he was able to take off the headphones and scarves he'd been hastily wrapped up in.

Of course, once that was done, and he was clear-headed enough to take stock of himself, then came the next problem. Namely, the fact that while it was very easy to see his quirk had indeed changed, it was, unfortunately, harder to tell exactly _what_ his quirk had changed into.

-o-

( _That tended to happen a lot, to be honest._

 _Most quirks weren't really instantly obvious unless they were the kind with physical manifestations, and even then, the actually abilities didn't always have anything to do with their appearance, like Ashido's pinkish appearance and her ability to produce acid._

 _Oftentimes, it was a real guessing game, trying to figure out what his new quirk was. In a lot of ways, it could even be kind of fun, experimenting through a mixture of scientific and silly actions to try to reveal his quirk._

 _His natural fascination with quirks and his logical reasoning made for a great combination in making sure he was generally more excited than frustrated when he had a new quirk he couldn't figure out._

 _Perhaps there was something to be said for the philosophy that everyone was born with the perfect quirk just for them. )_

-o-

For the few moments where nothing seemed to happen, Midoriya looked over himself, shaking his hands, standing up and doing whatever he could think of to draw out his new quirk. But it was all to no avail. Unlike his last quirk there were no outward signs of a change. There didn't seem to be any inward sign either, since he just felt… well, normal.

Midoriya was stumped, he had to admit, but he wasn't too disappointed. Mostly, he was full of anticipation wanting to figure out the puzzle of what his new quirk was. Before he could get a little too excited though, the doctor stepped in with his own experiments.

Mostly, he went over Izuku with various tools first. He used his stethoscope to measure his heartbeat, which showed slightly elevated signs, thanks to all the happenings, but were within normal range. Then, he used an otoscope to check inside his ears, which were also normal, though they could probably use a cleaning. Finally, he using a reflex hammer, which also resulted in perfectly ordinary results.

It wasn't until the doctor asked him to open his mouth with his tongue depressor that something outside the ordinary happened.

As soon as the wood touched his tongue, it began to _melt._

-o-

A new diagnosis was swiftly made, after that.

Acid Spit, the doctor concluded. _Midoriya's new quirk was Acid Spit._

It was as awesome as it was gross, which, to a small boy, was essentially the same thing.

Indeed, once he realized it, his face lit up, and his lips split into a wide grin as he proclaimed, with all the childish certainty and excitement of a six-year-old, _"That is so cool!"_

-o-

After that, they ran a few different experiments, to test out the limits of his new quirk, which the boy took on eagerly, especially when it meant he was literally being given permission to spit wherever he wanted (much as he tried to be a mature and responsible hero like his idol at all times, he was still very much a young boy, after all).

From the results, it was concluded that his spit could melt through pretty much anything, given enough time and volume. Whether it was wood, plastic, or even metal, it was no match for the power of his spit.

It also turned out that it was contact with air that turned his spit into acid, so it was entirely possible for him to contain his spit in an airtight container of some sort and then be able to drop it like a bomb on someone.

It would be an acid spit bomb, a truly gross and amazing weapon of mass destruction.

He could also use mechanism to allow his spit to travel much farther too, as a simple test with a straw proved. Though the end had melted a little since he'd taken a bit too long and the air had managed to get into the straw. Still, with the right airtight mechanism, it would likely be incredibly effective for long-distance battle.

Certainly, it wasn't quite to the level of flashiness and power of Bakugou's explosive hands or All Might's incredible strength, but it was rather hard to beat the sheer awesomeness of having _Acid Spit_ as a quirk, Midoriya thought. He could become an amazing hero with a quirk this!

But as cool as it was, his quirk wasn't really Acid Spit, he realized.

-o-

( _There was no quirk his Quirk Change couldn't change into. Anything and everything was a possibility. From the weakest to the strongest, the coolest to the lamest, the entire gamut of possibilities were all within his reach with a simple will of his mind._

 _It was a truly dizzying concept, and even with its limitations, it was still more power than he ever thought he could ever have._

 _Because here he was, shy and weak Midoriya Izuku, with a power not even All Might, the greatest hero in the world, could imagine.)_

-o-

"By now, it's rather clear that your true quirk is indeed Quirk Change, or the ability to change your quirk at will." The doctor noted, with an excited gleam in his eyes. "Truly a unique quirk that has never been seen before!"

His true quirk was so much more amazing than Bioluminescence or Rubber Body or even Acid Spit that he could hardly wrap his head around it. Part of him thought he must have been having a very strange dream. It was so hard to believe it was happening, especially to him. No matter how much he may have wished for an awesome quirk in the past, he didn't ever think he'd get something like this.

Midoriya's mind was whirling with all the possibilities of his quirk, and clearly, the doctor was on the same page.

"It seems, so far, that though you can change your quirks any time you will it, you are unable to choose what quirk it changes into." The doctor reasoned out. "However, this may simply be due to the fact that you had no specific intentions in mind during your past changes, seeing as you were unaware you were able to change at all."

That was a good point that Midoriya hadn't thought of, but now that he had, he found himself nearly exploding in excitement at the implications, especially when the doctor voiced out his next question.

"Therefore, the next point regarding your quirk that we must address is whether or not you _can_ choose what quirk you change into, after all."

Midoriya didn't know, but he was all too eager to find out, a wide smile on his face as he considered it. If he could truly choose what his quirk could change into...

-o-

 _Midoriya Izuku had always dreamed of being a hero like All Might._

-o-

...there was really only one answer to that.

-o-

Still, this was easier said than done.

By now, Midoriya had a fairly good idea of what his actual quirk could do, especially once he thought about everything that had happened since that first time he started glowing.

Every time his quirk had changed, it had started with the intense feeling of not wanting his current quirk and wishing for a different one.

It had been easy enough to conjure up the feelings when his quirk was making everything too loud and painful, and all he'd wanted was to make it _stop_.

Now, it was a little harder, since he didn't feel the same hate for his current quirk. No matter how he thought about it, Acid Spit was too cool a quirk to feel such intense dislike for, and certainly not now, when he only had it for a little while. Part of him was still thinking about exploring the limits of what he could do with it.

-o-

Maybe he was going about this the wrong way.

Thinking about the quirk he wanted to have instead made things a little easier.

It didn't much to conjure up his great admiration ( _obsession_ ) for All Might. The pro hero was his idol, and his quirk was amazing. How many times had he wished for something similar? How many times had he pretended to have it? Too many times to count.

-o-

 _Midoriya Izuku had always dreamed of being a hero like All Might, after all._

-o-

Once again there's that tingling feeling all over his body. It was a little like being doused in cold water, or like having tiny static shocks.

When it was over, there wasn't any visible change that they could immediately see.

 _Did it work?_

Only one way to find out, he thought. Midoriya tried to imagine that he was All Might beating up a villain, while swung his right fist out with as much force as he could calling out, " _Texas Smash!_ "

But nothing happened. No incredible rush of air or crazy force that probably would've ended up destroying the doctor's office now that he thought of it.

However, he could see that though his arm was not exactly glowing with power, it was indeed looking quite different. Instead of the usual pale white, he was now greeted with bright golden skin.

-o-

Despite his most fervent wishes his quirk did not change into something like All Might's. Instead, he got Skin Color Change, the simple quirk to transform his skin color to whatever he wanted.

His skin had defaulted to gold because it was what he subconsciously most associated All Might with, but he could choose specific colors if he focused on it. He was able to change his skin to his favorite shade of green, then to a pale blue, then to a tomato red in quick succession.

Not exactly a powerhouse quirk, but it was fun and pretty cool in its own way to see himself change like this. It wasn't painful like the rabbit ears or awkward like his Rubber Body had been at times.

It reminded him a little of the warmth and comfort of his first quirk, Bioluminescence.

-o-

( _With great power came great sacrifice. The strongest quirks was always the hardest to master and came with the most side effects._

 _It was why Midoriya didn't really mind getting a "weaker" quirk sometimes. They never hurt him the way the more powerful ones could, so sometimes, as a breather of sorts, he liked to take his time with some of the "weaker" quirks before he changed to another.)_

-o-

The doctor didn't seem too interested in testing the limits of this quirk and was more focused on the limits of his actual quirk. Midoriya had to admit he felt the same way.

"Hmm, it seems that the previous hypothesis was actually correct, and you cannot choose your quirk, after all". The doctor made another addition to his notes, before he hummed thoughtfully. "Perhaps we ought to look at this from a different angle. You cannot choose what new quirks you change into, however, is it possible for you to access the old quirks you have already changed to?"

An intriguing possibility full of potential if it were true. Just thinking about the quirks he'd possessed before filled him with want. There were some quirks he missed already.

Like his Bioluminescence.

Sure, glowing skin didn't exactly make for a powerful quirk fit for a pro hero, but it was his first quirk, and in many ways, his most precious. Especially now, with his current skin transforming quirk.

Almost in agreement, he found his skin shifting to the same shade of light green as his old glow. It wasn't quite the same though, and the difference made him miss it all the more.

Now that he knew what to do and he was a but more used to it, it didn't quite as much time or effort to conjure up the feelings of want for a new quirk.

-o-

 _On the day he thought he first got his quirk, Midoriya Izuku smiled so brightly he rivalled his glowing skin. He'd bounced with excitement, staring at his own hands with fascination._

 _He'd_ loved _his quirk._

-o-

When he opened his eyes, his skin was no longer a pale shade of green, but it wasn't glowing either.

It didn't work, he realized with disappointment. So he couldn't choose quirks he'd changed to accessed in the past.

For a moment, the disappointed dampened his mood enough he didn't even bother trying to figure out what his quirk did change into. As the doctor spoke up about testing him again to find out, however, he felt his mood lighten.

Perhaps he would not be able to have his old quirks again, but he had new ones.

-o-

It took a bit of testing to figure out what his quirk was this time. Once again checking his heart rate and ear canals netted nothing. But when the doctor tested for his reflexes, his feet responded by releasing a jet of air that sent one shoe into the wall and another smack dab into the doctor's face.

Midoriya had nearly fallen off the chair from the force of the sudden gust coming from his feet as well as his flustered apologies when he saw what happened. His mother was similarly apologetic but the doctor waved them off, more interested in quirks than in the red mark now on his face.

Though, he did remark that perhaps it was also time for Midoriya to leave soon, so maybe it did affect him. Regardless, they had ended up spending quite a long time at the office already.

The doctor did have him run a few tests with his new quirk, dubbed Hover Feet, enough to determine that he could release jets of air from his feet which allowed him to hover in the air. It was quite hard to control though, as Midoriya had nearly crashed into several things when trying it out, and he could only maintain it for short periods of time. Closer examination also revealed that there were tiny holes in his feet, which were quite sensitive when poked at.

It was an interesting enough quirk, but not half as interesting as his actual quirk, which they made future appointments to discuss further. The doctor seemed a little too interested perhaps, as his fascination was only exceeded by Midoriya's, but Inko figured just a few more sessions wouldn't do any harm.

-o-

( _It would do a lot of harm. On a lot of people, including Midoriya. But they would only find that out much later on._ )

-o-

Knowledge was a kind of power too, and even if it weren't, Midoriya was the type to obsessively find out as much as he could about something just because it interested him.

Now he knew that his true quirk was Quirk Change, and he could change his quirk at will, but he couldn't choose what it would be.

There seemed to be no limitation on the kind of quirk he could change to, seeing as he'd ended up with mutation quirks before, which were usually found at birth, as well as transformation and emitter type quirks too. He seemed to have no limit on how many times he could change either, but that wasn't certainty yet seeing as he'd changed less than a dozen times so far.

There were still so many things he didn't know about his quirk. Because no one had ever been born with Midoriya's quirk before, no one knew all the rules.

So Midoriya would have make it all up as he went, researching his own quirk with the fervor he previously reserved for his Pro Hero research (worship).

Perhaps this would have been a daunting challenge to someone else. But Midoriya wasn't quite everyone else, even before his quirk proved it.

So, despite a few bruises from crashing into a wall thanks to his new Hover Feet quirk, when Midoriya left the office he was all but beaming, and babbling excitedly at his mother about all the possibilities his actual quirk brought him.

-o-

 _Midoriya Izuku had always dreamed of being a hero like All Might._

 _With Quirk Change, he would make it come true._


	6. Hover Feet

**A/N:For all those impatient readers, this will be the final chapter with them as kids, and we'll have a time skip next chapter where canon begins :)**

* * *

The next day, Midoriya went to school with his thoughts still focused on his current Hover Feet quirk.

He'd gotten in as much practice as he could last night, and while he still couldn't control it perfectly, it was much better than when he tried it at the doctor's office yesterday.

Even though it was kind of unwieldy and he tended to crash or flail about more than actually hover as intended, there was no denying how cool the sensation was when he managed to succeed and he was actually in the air.

There were few things in the world that could be more awesome than the feeling of flying, he thought giddily.

-o-

Nothing, except perhaps, his true quirk.

Even now, Midoriya could hardly believe he'd really somehow been given with such a gift. He could essentially have any and possibly every quirk in the world!

Sure, he couldn't choose what it was, but that was half the fun! Besides, he could easily change anytime he wanted if he didn't like the quirk he ended up with, so it wasn't really as terrible of limitation as it seemed at first.

Really, the more he thought about it, the more amazing his quirk seemed!

-o-

Thanks to his quirk, he had been able to glow in the dark, change his body into rubber, have acid spit, and now hover in the air! Who knew what else he'd be able to do?

Part of Midoriya was excited to find out, but he didn't feel too much of a rush yet, since he was still enjoying his current quirk. He kind of wished he'd had more time with his Acid Spit quirk too. Now that the initial excitement and experimentation involved in finding out his true quirk had passed, he realized he really didn't want to keep changing so quickly if he could help it—he needed at least a week or two to properly analyze and enjoy a quirk, maybe longer.

Midoriya had always loved quirks, and loved figuring them out especially, after all.

With that in mind, he decided to practice his Hover Feet just a bit more.

You weren't supposed to used your quirks out in public without a license, but that law tended to be pretty lax for children, who were generally still getting used to using their quirks. Still, it was best not to get caught at all if you could help it, he thought, as he headed down a side road through a residential street where there seemed to be no one around.

Because his Hover Feet worked by releasing air from holes in the soles of his feet, he couldn't really use his quirk with his shoes or socks on. So he had to go barefoot first, quickly stuffing his All Might socks and sneakers in his backpack, once he found a good enough spot.

He bent his knees a little trying to get himself as balanced as possible before he activated Hover Feet. As he'd figured out last night, this made it easier to keep his balance once he started rising in the air.

It took a little concentration, but once he willed it, jets of air quickly shot out from his feet, lifting him right into the air. His heart pounded hard in his chest and he struggled to maintain his balance as he continued to rise. From his experiments so far, he'd found that keeping his arms out and swinging to correct his course while keeping his legs as still as possible was his best option.

Of course, inevitably, he'd end up swinging his hand out too hard or his foot would shake and he'd end up flailing about in the air, trying desperately not to crash into anything. He'd gained quite a few new bruises since yesterday when he didn't quite manage to turn off his quirk in time.

Still, when he managed to get himself to just the right position and hover weightlessly in the air, it was truly amazing.

He was really only able to produce enough air to make him rise about five feet or so off the ground, but that was still pretty high, especially considering it was essentially about his height, so it was like he was twice as tall when he used Hover Feet.

The world seemed so much bigger and brighter when he was up in the air like this, he thought, beaming as he felt the breeze against his cheeks. He had hope that maybe this time, he would be able to make this stay this way just a little longer than last time.

-o-

( _Yeah, that wasn't going to happen._

 _Not that Midoriya would be much surprised. For someone who basically relied on luck most of the time for his quirk, he had some seriously unlucky timing way too much.)_

-o-

" _DEKU!?"_

The sudden shout startled Midoriya enough to make him lose his focus and make him flinch. A particularly disastrous combination when one was using his quirk to float five feet in the air.

Balance lost, he was now forced to flail wildly in the air, his feet still releasing jets of air that were now pushing him in all sorts of directions—including straight towards the source of the noise, one shocked Bakugou Katsuki.

He was headed straight for him, and there was no time to switch course. Not that he could even if there was, because his control was still terrible and panic made it about a hundred times worse.

Completely on instinct, Midoriya managed to shut his Hover Feet off just before impact. The jets of air, as some kind of built-in safety function maybe, slowly dissipated, typically allowing him to gently float back down without hurting himself.

This time, it managed to make it so that instead of crashing right into the other boy hard enough to break something, it managed to make it so that he crashed hard enough just to bruise instead.

Even so, the force of his sudden fall was enough to send them both tumbling hard to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

" _Owowow_ ," Midoriya moaned out in pain, his head still whirling from the impact.

An answering groan from just below him quickly brought him to his senses, however.

"K-Kacchan! A-are you o-okay?!" His eyes widened to saucers, as he immediately tried to get his weight off the blonde. Unfortunately, his balance was still pretty off after the fall and using Hover Feet all this time, so he ended up tumbling back down to the ground when he attempted to stand on his shaky legs.

At least he hadn't landed back on Kacchan. Speaking of, the explosive boy was now getting up too, with much more success than Midoriya too.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, he glared right at the green-haired boy, making him flinch.

"S-sorry about that, Kacchan," Midoriya quickly apologized, as he explained in a rush, "I didn't mean to! I would've tried to change directions but I still can't control it that well, and I probably would've made things worse. It's a good thing I managed to shut it off before I crashed or it would've hurt a lot more—"

"Deku. I don't care about you crashing into me." Kacchan interrupted him with a frustrated huff, before he growled impatiently " _I care about the fact that you were fucking flying in the first place!_ "

"Oh, that." Midoriya said in a small voice.

"Yeah, _that_ ," He retorted with a roll of his eyes, before shaking his head. _"What the hell was_ that _, Deku?"_

-o-

Last night, in between experimenting with Hover Feet and thinking about his true quirk, he'd wondered about how would everyone react when they learned what his quirk really was?

Well, thinking about it, the most likely answer was probably something like what happened last time his quirk had somehow changed.

Many of the kids from his old kindergarten class had gone to different schools, so most only knew him as having Rubber Body for a quirk. That meant it would probably be even more shocking. After all, if he could hardly believe it still, even after everything that happened.

Even now, Midoriya was pretty shy around other kids, and didn't feel the most comfortable with attention, so he wasn't looking too forward to getting crowded and asked a thousand questions. But he'd liked the feeling of everyone admiring him and his quirk. Though it made him blush like crazy with embarrassment, it had still been really nice, to be someone that people looked at like that. Normally, he was the one looking at people with such starry eyes.

Naturally, thinking of that, his thoughts quickly shifted to Bakugou.

His relationship with Kacchan was… _complicated_.

They had an easy friendship as toddlers with a shared love for heroes, and All Might in particular. But things had changed once it Bakugou developed his quirked while Midoriya remained quirkless, and then appeared out to have only a weak glowing skin quirk.

He didn't like to think about those times.

After he'd changed his quirk to Rubber Body, Kacchan had actually started treating him like they were friends again. Though he still called him Deku most times, he didn't say it meanly or like it was an insult anymore. Sure, he still beat up on him a lot, but that was just practice, since his Rubber Body made him pretty much the perfect training dummy. These days, they could actually talk to each other again, without Kacchan being too insulting about it, mostly.

It wasn't the easy friendship they had before, of course, but it was _something_ like a friendship again, and all of it was thanks to his Rubber Body quirk.

-o-

 _How would he react now?_ Midoriya had wondered.

 _With anger and shock, it would seem,_ the distant part of him that wasn't outright panicking noted. Though maybe that was because he'd crashed into him. Even if he outright said it wasn't, the blonde was definitely the type who would get angry about that.

The way he was getting angry now, as Midoriya struggled to explain everything that had happened regarding his quirk.

"Deku! Fucking _answer_ me already!" Bakugou demanded impatiently. He looked about a second away from shaking the other boy for the answers without any care for either of their bruises from the crash. "How were you floating in the air like that?"

As usual, confronted with an angry Bakugou, Midoriya could only blurt out his answer in a nervous ramble, ""I-it's my quirk, Hover F-Feet. It lets me release jets of air from tiny holes in my feet that let me fly in the air. But it's hard to control it and get the balance right. That's why I crashed into you."

"But your quirk is Rubber Body!" Bakugou frowned harshly, "...Isn't it?"

There was a moment of silence, before Midoriya slowly shook his head. Taking a deep breath, he admitted, "I went to see the doctor with my mom yesterday and it turns out, my real quirk is Quirk Change."

"Quirk… change?" Bakugou repeated skeptically.

"I can basically change my quirk anytime I want." Midoriya explained, unable to keep the sheer joy from his voice as he did so, before it fell a little as he quickly added, "But I can't control what it changes into. Still, if I don't like it, I can just change it again anyway, so it's not really that much of a negative now that I think about it—"

-o-

As Midoriya continued on yet another one of his rambling tangents, explaining all the various things he'd discovered about his quirk since yesterday, Bakugou could only watch him with wide eyes still. He wasn't sure what to think. It was crazy, but it wasn't like the green-haired dork would every lie about such a thing.

Besides, he'd seen it with his own eyes.

Midoriya had been flying high in air, propelling himself by releasing jets of wind from his feet. There was no way he could've done that with just his Rubber Body quirk.

Not to mention, it had already happened once, after all. Before Rubber Body, Deku had a useless skin glowing quirk he couldn't even remember the name of. But he did remember the day it had changed to something else. He could hardly forget it, but over time, he'd let the memory fade into the background.

Somehow, he'd sort of convinced himself that the first quirk Deku had gotten was some weird mistake or something and when he'd ended up with Rubber Body instead, it was just nature correcting its course or something. He hadn't really thought too hard about it. All that mattered was that Deku wasn't so useless anymore, and he could maybe even be his sidekick or something. His Rubber Body quirk had made him very useful as a sparring partner after all.

Bakugou wasn't sure how to categorize this new Deku with this weird quirk he had never heard of before. Even though he had to admit it did make sense, he could still hardly believe it was true. He needed to see it with his own eyes.

"Prove it." Bakugou demanded, cutting off the rambling mid-sentence.

"Wh-what?" The green-haired boy stuttered out.

Narrowing his eyes, the blonde stated bluntly, "Change your quirk right now."

-o-

Midoriya wasn't sure he wanted to lose his Hover Feet quirk so soon, since he'd only been able to enjoy for all of two days, but it was hard to say no to Bakugou, especially when he was like this.

Well, at least he'd managed to fly properly for a bit, he thought in consolation. Maybe his next quirk would be easier to get used to, anyway. In fact, maybe he'd get a healing quirk or something, he considered hopefully, as he felt all too aware of his throbbing body still aching from crashing into the tree.

Focusing on that thought, Midoriya brought up

-o-

 _There was a familiar tingle of warmth—_

-o-

The cuts and scrapes from his recent fall were all gone, even the rather painful bruise on his side had dulled greatly to something barely noticeable.

 _Was it really a healing quirk like he'd wanted?_ Midoriya's eyes widened in surprise and excitement. _Did that mean he could control what he changed into after all?_

"Your skin looks weird," Bakugou noted with a frown.

Now that Kacchan mentioned it, he could see that there was definitely something different about it. Looking closely, Midoriya could see that his skin—everywhere from his hands to his legs to even his stomach—seemed unnaturally pale, and that instead of his veins, there were some weird sort of brownish lines all over. It all looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place from where.

Actually, after a few more moments, he thought he could _feel_ that something was off too. He felt kind of heavy and muffled, like that one time he'd worn too many layers of clothing because of the heavy winter snow.

"I feel weird too." Midoriya admitted. "I feel… heavier?"

It was hard to explain the sensation properly. Clearly his new quirk was a mutation type that had changed his skin, and possibly his inside too, he thought, into something else.

Bakugou gave his arm an experimental poke, quickly noting, "It's hard—like a rock, and kind of cold."

 _Hard, rocky and cold?_ Midoriya hummed thoughtfully for a moment, before his eyes widened in realization. "Oh! It's… marble, I think. Like the kind in the kitchen counter."

"So your new quirk is… Marble Skin?"

Now that he had some idea of what it was, Midoriya was nodding eagerly, already considering the possibilities, "Yeah! That means I can take a lot of damage, then, since marble is really hard and strong. Hmm.. the fact that my scratches disappeared probably proves that. My bruises have lessened too though I still feel a bit sore. Actually, I think all my feelings have sort of lessened in general—"

Midoriya's mumbling became nearly inaudible as his excitement ratcheted, and Bakugou could only roll his eyes, before calling out, "Deku! There's only one question you need to answer."

Before Midoriya could ask what he meant, the blonde's hands exploded in a shower of fiery lights and his face split into a feral grin.

-o-

 _"Can your quirk stand up to my explosions?"_

-o-

Midoriya was torn between excitement and nervousness, as he stood fidgeting, waiting for Bakugou to send a blast.

He did not have to wait long. Wind whipped through his hair from the sheer concussive force of his explosion as it reached its target. But despite it impacting him squarely in the chest, he barely moved an inch back.

"W-woah," Midoriya breathed out, hardly daring to believe it actually worked, and so well too. He could only look wide-eyed at a similarly stunned Bakugou.

Then, at the exact same time, both boys broke into a smile, though one more sharp-toothed than the other. Eyes bright as his explosions, Bakugou quickly announced, "Let's do it again!"

This time, Midoriya was just as eager, "Yeah! Hit me with the biggest explosion you can do!"

-o-

In the end, they set off about a dozen more explosions, resulting in only a few minor scratches on his marble at worst and only ever managing to make him move a few inches at a time. His uniform, on the other hand, had not been quite as indestructible, and the cloth was looking pretty dirty and singed by the end of their little experiment.

Bakugou was looking roughed up too, seeing as he'd been hurt during Midoriya's fall from his Hover Feet failing, and he hadn't exactly been able to heal himself by changing his quirk after. His uniform was also rather dirty from hitting the ground too, though at least it hadn't been hit with any fire.

Basically, both of them looked like they had gotten into a huge fight with each other, except for the fact that they were both grinning widely at each other. Or, well, smirking, in one spiky blonde's case.

-o-

 _(His relationship with Kacchan was one with a lot of highs and lows. A lot more lows than highs, if he was being completely honest._

 _But this moment, where the two of them were just two young boys united in their excitement over their quirks and their dreams as future heroes—this was one of the highs._

 _Moments like these were what kept him going during the low points, when he could hardly call the other boy a "friend" without it feeling like a sardonic joke. Moments like these, he could remember the boy he had first become such easy friends with, and think that it was worth it, to keep fighting for a friendship that often seemed all too one-sided.)_

-o-

Eventually, after they were both breathing pretty hard from quirk overuse, they managed to remember that they actually had a class to get to, that they were both very late for now. Not that either one of them cared too much. Not even Midoriya.

Especially not when Bakugou spoke up, just as they started to head off in the direction of their elementary school, "Hmph, your quirk is actually pretty awesome, after all, Deku."

Midoriya had nearly stopped walking in shock. That was probably the nicest thing Kacchan had said to him in literal years, especially about his quirk. Even after he'd changed to Rubber Body, the blonde hadn't been so direct about it.

"T-thanks, Kacchan!" He replied, beaming as bright as the sun.

Bakugou merely scoffed, looking a little embarrassed despite himself, before he quickly reasserted himself, "Yeah, just don't it get to your head, nerd. I'm still going to be the best hero ever!"

Midoriya only continued to grin, as he shot back, "And I'll be right there with you!"

-o-

 _Maybe it wasn't the start of a beautiful friendship, but it was the rebirth of something close to it._


	7. 8 Years Later

_Eight years later..._

-o-

Midoriya was writing furiously in his notebook, but he wasn't taking notes on the lesson. No, he was scribbling in _Quirk Analysis For The Future Vol. 13,_ which was the thirteenth notebook he'd filled out with all his observations and experiments regarding every quirk he'd ever changed into in the past eight years.

At the moment, he was writing his thoughts on his current quirk.

 _Metal Detector_ , as its name implied, allowed him to detect all the metals that were within a certain vicinity. After some experimentation, he'd figured out that his maximum range was about fifty meters or so.

For the three days he'd had this quirk so far, he'd been working on trying to increase the range as much as he could—-including during lessons he didn't need to pay much attention to, which was most of them, really, because he'd always been quite advanced for his age, and soaked up information like a sponge.

On top of being smart, he was also polite to all the teachers, and helpful to his fellow classmates, willing to lend a hand anytime. It was no wonder his popularity amongst his schoolmates was second only to Bakugou, who was more _infamous_ , really.

The fact that the two of them were basically best friends only made them more popular, because they had something of a yin-yang thing going on, the nice guy to his bad boy,

Indeed, Midoriya was truly the model student.

You know, except for the part where he was often secretly using his quirk, or writing about his quirk, when he wasn't supposed to.

After all, no one was allowed to use their quirks in school, especially during class. But it wasn't like anyone could actually prove he was using _Metal Detector_ right now, since there wasn't any outward indication he had activated his quirk aside from perhaps his expression of concentration.

This was one of the best perks of subtle quirks, he mused. While the flashy quirks were admittedly awesome, they could be pretty limited in their use. He couldn't exactly use a quirk like Bakugou's just anywhere or anytime, the way he could something like Metal Detector.

Through Metal Detector, he could sense all the metal that was in the classroom, from the belt buckle on Kacchan's pants, to the metal pencil case a few seats forward, to the braces of the kid in the back.

If he widened the scope of his senses, he could even "see" the metal of the microscope being used in the laboratory in the room above, or the frying pan and the spatula being used to fry the burgers for lunch in the kitchens below.

He could _see_ it all, even with his eyes closed.

So, in theory, as long as someone had any kind of metal object on them, he could essentially pinpoint their location through that. If he combined that fact with some kind of weapon or support item, it could prove to be a valuable asset, he thought, with a satisfied smile to himself.

Seeing as it wasn't a powerful or offensive quirk, Kacchan didn't think was very useful or cool. As usual, he thought the green-haired boy should immediately switch to a better quirk when he got "a dud", as he called it.

But Izuku liked to try out every quirk, no matter what it was, for at least a week to try to get all the possibilities out of it. He was a firm believer that there was no such thing as a "useless" quirk, if you just knew how to apply it.

-o-

( _Yeah okay, he might've still had some old issues from the time when he thought he was quirkless or just had a skin glowing quirk, but the point was still true, mostly._ )

Even a quirk like Metal Detector could do great things.

Already, he was brainstorming ways he could apply it to hero work.

Izuku could immediately identify where knives or any other metal weapons were located, and thus, be able to prepare for concealed weapons or attacks coming from his blind side.

If there was a bomb hidden in a building, he could pinpoint its metal components and thus its location immediately.

In the case of a building collapse, he could see the building's skeletal steel structure and conclude where its weakest points were.

He quickly scribbled each potential scenario as it came to him, automatically turning off Metal Detector as he did so. While it wasn't as draining to use as more powerful quirks, it did require some focus to keep up, and it was especially hard to do so when he was also concentrating on his writing.

-o-

"—also applying to UA, aren't you?"

So lost in his notes, and the possibilities of his current quirk, Midoriya nearly missed the teacher calling his name. He startled to attention just in time to hear the end of his words.

Before the green-haired boy could say anything, however, Kacchan answered for him, voice full of confident swagger as always, "Of course he is!"

The rest of the class didn't even wait for his actual answer as they started chiming in.

" _Oh, if it's Midoroya, he'll definitely get in!"_

 _"He's got the grades and the quirk."_

 _"Yeah, with a quirk like his, there's no way he can fail!"_

 _"After all, he can literally just keep changing quirks 'til he finds the right one."_

Midoriya was a long way off from the shy boy who stuttered and blushed at every compliment that came his way, but even now, he couldn't help but feel his face warm a little at everyone's high praise. Giving a pleased smile, he exclaimed, "Wow, thanks everyone! I'll definitely do my best and get in."

Completely ignoring this atmosphere, Bakugou exploded in anger, " _Oi, oi, what the hell is this shitty attitude, you damn extras?!_ " He angrily pointed at the people who'd just talked about Midoriya. " _Why is Deku a fucking shoo-in but I'm not!?_ "

"Well, you don't exactly act like a hero."

"Yeah, you're more like a villain!" One kid said with a laugh.

Midoriya winced for his sake, but couldn't help but agree. For ages, he'd been trying to get Kacchan to tone done his aggression precisely to avoid misconceptions like this. But trying to get Kacchan to change his temper was kind of a lost cause. At least he'd managed to hammer home the point that he shouldn't attack people weaker than him.

" _You motherfucker—"_ Bakugou lunged for the boy who spoke. "I'm no fucking villain!"

...Well, at least he wasn't using his quirk to do it, Midoriya supposed that was something.

"Ack! Y-you are totally proving my point right now!" The boy pointed out as he quickly backed away from the snarling blonde.

"You know Kacchan, he's got a point," Midoriya piped up, slapping the most innocent expression on his face when Kacchan turned to give him a glare. Beaming, he added, "But _I_ believe you'll get into UA, Kacchan! Even if you do seem to keep getting mistaken for a villain."

" _Fuck you, Deku._ "

-o-

( _Sometimes, it was almost comforting to think, no matter how much things changed, neither Kacchan's temper nor his potty mouth ever did._

 _Not even as a pro hero._

 _Boy, did the internet have a field day with him when he ended up swearing a storm in front of a bunch of preschoolers he was saving.)_

Still, even though he'd been teasing him with those words, Midoriya was also quite serious.

Both of them were in their last year of middle school, and both of them were aiming to go to UA together too. While the chances were slim, both of them were confident in their own abilities. Sometimes, he thought Kacchan was probably overconfident, but it wasn't like he didn't have reason to be.

Still, it wasn't like they couldn't improve their chances of getting in even more.

They still had some time before the entrance exams for UA, after all, and they were making the most of it. Especially Midoriya, who was busy trying to find the perfect quirk for the exams.

Despite his classmate's words, he thought it was too risky to activate Quirk Change in the middle of the exams, because he couldn't control what he'd change to, after all, and it was all too likely he'd end up with a "useless" quirk, or worse, a dangerous quirk he had no idea how to properly use.

Sure, he could always just change to another quirk if one was a "bust", but it wasn't like that helped the fundamental problem.

Most of them only saw him on school days, usually after he'd already managed to get a handle on whatever new quirk he had that week. They didn't really see him when he first changed.

The fact was, Izuku needed an adjustment period to his new quirks, especially for the more powerful ones. Though his constant research on quirk helped, there were simply too many unknown factors involved with each new quirk he changed to, that he was never going to be certain exactly what to do until he actually tried it. Generally, it still took at least fifteen minutes or so to figure out what to do, even with the most obvious of quirks. For the subtle ones, it could take him hours, and sometimes, even _days_.

Obviously, he would not have that kind of time during the middle of possible the most important exam in his life.

So, the best course of action was to use the same quirk all throughout the exams.

It really shouldn't have been too hard, considering that was literally what everyone else was going to be doing. Even Kacchan, though he'd likely improve his quirk by quite a bit before then.

He was doing some kind of secret training for the entrance exams too. Midoriya suspected this was mostly in response to his own secret training.

The two of them had always pushed each other to be better, being friends who were also rivals that aimed to be just like—or even surpass—All Might, after all.

He couldn't help but wonder if the blonde's training was going better though, because his was sort of going nowhere.

 _What was the perfect quirk to use for UA's entrance exam?_

-o-

That was a question he still didn't know the answer to, even after going through dozens of very different quirks.

Some of them had been obvious _no's_ , because not even he was willing to gamble his future on a _Hair Color Change_ or _Tongue Extension_ quirk.

But some of them would probably be someone else's definition of perfect. Certainly, they had fit Kacchan's. He'd changed into all sorts of powerful and dangerous quirks over the years, from _Lightning Generation_ to _Memory Manipulation_. Any one of them would've likely been enough to get him into UA.

But he didn't just want _any_ quirk. He wanted the _perfect_ quirk.

Maybe he was being silly. Even his last quirk before this had some potential, after all.

 _Extra Limbs_ had given him the ability to transform extra arms or legs anywhere on his body.

While it had made for a strange and often unsettling sight, to see him with an extra arm on his head or extra legs for his legs, it was undeniably practical too. By adding arms to his arms, he's be able to extend his reach, which was invaluable for a fight and full getting to tight or high places. Extra arms also meant extra weapons one could handle. If the extra arm or leg was at his back, then he could even defend or attack from behind.

Kacchan had been both slightly weirded out and impressed despite himself. He'd also been pretty angry when Midoriya had an extra arm on his chest mid-spar to send a surprise sucker punch right to the face. The added element of surprise this quirk gave him had made for some pretty interesting fights between them. By the end, Kacchan had actually been a little disappointed he'd changed quirks. Especially to like _Metal Detector_ , which wasn't exactly the best in a straight-up fight _aka_ Kacchan's favorite test for Midoriya's quirks.

Maybe he shouldn't have changed _Extra Limbs_ so soon, Midoriya mused. Though he had kept it for a little over three weeks already, which was fairly long for him to keep any one quirk nowadays. In the end, he'd mostly caved to his classmates begging him to change because they thought Extra Limbs was "creepy".

He'd been a little insulted by that, and half-tempted to keep his quirk just to be contrary.

-o-

( _Sometimes, he understood all too well why Kacchan thought so lowly of their classmates._

 _Not all quirks were created equal. Midoriya knew that well, better than most. Thanks to the unique circumstances of Quirk Change, he'd experienced both ends of the spectrum, and everything in between, after all._

 _Especially with strangers who didn't know what his true quirk was, he'd experienced people giving him fearful looks, muttering disparaging remarks, doing double-takes, and more, depending on what quirk he had at the time._

 _Midoriya hated it._

 _Maybe not all quirks were created equal, but the people who wielded them were.)_

-o-

So Izuku may have ended up using the quirk for a few more days, and took special enjoyment in practicing his quirk on school grounds as much as he could get away with, just as his own brand of " _fuck you_ ".

Still, he did eventually change, since he still wanted to try out some more new quirks.

Honestly, in some ways, maybe the real problem was, he had too many quirks that could be used in the exams, to the point where he was no longer sure which one he actually ought to choose.

Either way, it was quite a conundrum he had, and one he still had no real solution too.

It was why his only course of action at the moment was to keep on changing his quirk, in the hopes that he would know the "perfect" quirk when he changed to it.

Well, despite the possibilities Midoriya had ruminated on, even he had to admit, he knew the perfect quirk to use wasn't going to be Metal Detector.

-o-

If Midoriya really wanted to get serious about this, he was probably going to have to start considering changing quirks more often. At least, for the ones that he was obviously never going to end up using for the exam.

As of now, he was on his third day with Metal Detector as his quirk. If he followed his usual schedule, he still had four whole days to go. He wondered if maybe it was time for him to forgo his usual strategy and change quirks today.

-o-

The dilemma stayed on his mind all the way until the bell rang for the end of the day, and he still had no firm answer.

" _Ugh, could you believe those fucking extras earlier?_ " Kacchan grouched to him as soon as the last class was over.

"You know, calling them extras is one of the reasons they think of you as a villain, right?" Midoriya pointed out, as they both packed up to go home.

Neither of them were in any after school clubs, since they were both focused on UA, after all. Midoriya had briefly joined a Hero Fan Club in elementary school (he'd even dragged Kacchan to a few sessions), which had been fun, but after entering middle school, he'd decided to focus on spending his free time training his quirk so he could

be a hero himself. Kacchan had never bothered with any of it, with his antisocial tendencies and all.

"Whatever, I fucking call 'em like I see 'em." The blonde merely scoffed. "You think any of them are actually going to end up as heroes? Let alone going to pass UA along with us?"

If Midoriya was being completely honest, the answer was _no_. Sure, most of them claimed to want to be heroes, but none of them actually tried all that hard to make that happen for them, so he didn't think any of them were really serious about their claims.

Still, he shrugged, "Hey, as someone with a quirk that relies on probability, all I can say is, everything is possible."

"Tch, you still can't lie to save your damn life, Deku." Kacchan smirked. "So you don't think they have a fucking chance in hell either."

The green-haired boy didn't reply this time, only rolling his eyes and changing the subject, as they walked out of the classroom, "Did you hear about Mt. Lady's debut this morning?"

"Who the fuck is that?" Kacchan asked, frowning.

"She's a new hero with a Gigantification Quirk. I saw her fight along with Kamui Wood on my way to school earlier today. It's all over the net!"

Midoriya took out his phone, scrolling a bit for a moment before showing the other boy the screen. It was a news story about the incident, showing a picture of Mt. Lady in all her giant glory at the very top of it.

"Seriously? How the hell did I miss that? She's fucking huge!" He shook his head, frowning. "Not to mention, we walk practically the same route."

"You probably just missed her." Izuku shrugged, grinning as he added, "If you'd just walk to school with me, you wouldn't have missed her."

Completely unimpressed, the spiky-haired boy merely shot back, "If you wouldn't keep wasting my fucking time by stopping to test your quirk every two seconds, maybe I would."

"Practice makes perfect, Kacchan!" Midoriya singsonged, before admitting more seriously. "Besides, when you only have a limited window of time with a quirk, you want to spend all of that limited time with it."

"With fucking _Metal Detector_ , really?" The blonde raised his brows with a scoff. "How's that going for you?"

The two of them were nearing the school gates now, where they usually separate paths for their own training. Though they still hung out of course, it mostly on the weekends, when Midoriya had a new quirk he wanted to test out and Kacchan was curious about.

"I'll have you know, it's going _great!_ " Midoriya stressed. "I can basically pinpoint wherever you are within a 50-meter radius just by the metal of your belt buckle."

Bakugou still didn't seem too impressed. "Yeah, and what can you do when you find me, nerd? Not like you can beat me with your metal finding skills."

"...I'm working on that part." Midoriya eventually said, before shaking his head, "At least now that school's over, I can practice it freely. Hopefully, I'll have something soon—-"

They were at the gates, and Bakugou had already left him behind mid-ramble.

 _Rude_ , he thought. But it was so very expected of the other boy, he wasn't at all surprised. Waving a hand in the air, he called out, "See you tomorrow!"

Without turning around, he raised a hand, shouting, "Yeah, yeah. See you with a fucking new quirk tomorrow!"

"Love you too, Kacchan."

" _Fuck you, Deku_."

-o-

Bakugou wasn't lying about Midoriya taking his sweet time. He always like to take the long way home. It gave him time to think and practice with whatever quirk he currently had.

Though he wasn't really sure how much more he could improve Metal Detector, he figured there was no harm in trying anyway. He could always improve his range or his accuracy.

If nothing else, simply using his quirk at all helped to get him used to it and any side effects.

Walking with Metal Detector activated was a slightly disconcerting experience. As with any sensory quirk, it took some getting used to when it was combined with other senses or motion, especially. It was really easy to get motion sickness or sensory overload.

He walked slowly, noting all the metal and their positions that he passed along the way. If not for this quirk, he would've never noticed just how _much_ metal there was to be found in the modern world.

As he started walking into the tunnel, he sensed the rebars embedded in the concrete, the steel railings along the bridge above, the manhole cover on the ground he just passed—

He sensed the unusual movements of the metal, and quickly turned around, but it was no use.

Before he could do anything other than raising his arms up in futile defense, the strange Slime Villain was all over him.

"Don't worry, I'm just hijacking your body," the villain spoke up, able to speak clearly despite his inhuman form. "Just calm down. It'll be over soon."

Panicked, Midoriya could barely hear anything except his own racing heart. He desperately attempted to scratch, hit or shake the villain off. But his body had no form he could hurt at all, and he was running out of air fast.

-o-

 _He needed—_

-o-

A large blast of air burst from his mouth, sending the Slime Villain flying off him. He crashed right into the wall, the force of his impact sending shockwaves that rocked the ceiling above them.

Midoriya took a moment to regain his breath, greedily sucking in the air he'd been so deprived of, as his brain started to whir again. His quirk had changed on instinct, into a quirk that gave him the ability to send a burst of air from his mouth.

 _Just the perfect quirk_ _for taking down the slime villain,_ Midoriya quickly realized. Any lingering panic dissipated with that thought.

He could do this. His heart was racing again, but this time, it was not from fear.

"That _hurt!_ You're gonna _pay_ for that, you little—"

Just at the villain got ready to attack again, Midoriya took another deep breath before quickly releasing another large blast of air that send the villain flying back yet again. This time, he was able to keep it up for longer, pinning the villain to the wall for several beats before he ran out of air.

 _Probably because he had been able to draw extra air he could realize,_ he immediately theorized. His adrenalin was making everything feel faster, including his usual conclusions about his quirks.

The villain was looking quite battered now, but still not out of the count yet. He was also angrier too, his monstrous mouth twisted into an even more monstrous snarl.

Midoriya tensed, getting ready to send another blast, but before he could do anything, a figure appeared seemingly out of nowhere. All in the span of an instant, a fist was sending out a punch that created huge blasts of air— much stronger than the ones he'd been able to make—from the sheer force of his attack alone.

There was only one person who could do such a thing, and the words that came with the punch immediately confirmed it.

" **_TEXAS SMASH!_ ****"**

Midoroya could only stand dumbfounded at the scene unfolding before him. _His greatest hero was right in front of him, in all his incredible, shining glory!_ He could hardly believe his eyes.

The slime villain was quickly neutralized in no time flat thanks to the No. 1 Hero. A startled laugh escaped his mouth when the villain that had nearly choked him to death was stuffed into a soda bottle.

Clearly, his a unique quirk had it's serious drawbacks.

Once the enemy was contained, the hero turned towards Midoriya, who could only stare with his mouth still agape, " _A-All Might!_ "

It had been a long time since Midoriya had been a nervous, stuttering wreck like this, but being in front of your childhood hero could certainly do it.

" **Yes, it is I, All Might!** " The hero confirmed, with his signature smile. " **Apologies for getting you caught up in my villain hunt. But from what I saw, you were doing a good job of handling it! Ha! Ha! Ha!** "

" _Th-thank y-you!"_ He managed to squeak in response. Was this really happening? All Might was actually here—and complimenting him too? If this was really a dream, Izuku didn't want to wake up. "I… I've always wanted to be a great hero—just like you!"

" **You have potential, my boy! You will be a great hero one day!"** All Might replied positively, and Midoriya nearly fainted then and there. " **Now, I must bring this to the authorities!** "

"W-wait!" Midoriya rushed to find his notebook, scrambling for an empty page before shoving it before the hero's face. "S-sorry, but you—"

The hero was signing the notebook before he could even get the whole question out. Then, he was crouching down, and in an instant, flying up in the air.

" **Until next time, young aspiring hero! Thank you for your support!"**

"Thank you too, All Might!" He called out to the hero's retreating form in the sky.

-o-

 _Midoriya had always wanted to be a hero just like All Might._

-o-

There was a saying, that you should never meet your heroes.

Those people had clearly never met All Might.

After meeting his hero, Midoriya was more determined than ever to achieve his dreams, so he could live up to the man who inspired him so greatly.

 _If All Might believed he could become a hero, after all, how could he possibly disappoint him?_


	8. Road to Being A Hero

After that incredible encounter, Midoriya didn't bother taking his usual sweet time to move, and basically ran all the way back to his neighborhood. He wasn't going home, however, but to another house, that was basically his second home anyway.

It wasn't until he was eagerly knocking on the Bakugou residence's main door that he realized Kacchan might not have even been home yet. He probably should've called first. Or at least texted. Just as he was bringing up his phone to ask the other boy where he was, however, the door swung open.

As luck would have it, it was Kacchan himself was the one who answered the door.

"Deku? What the fuck are you doing here?" Despite the swearing, he looked more confused than annoyed at his presence. "Did you decide to change your shitty quirk after all?"

"Well—yes, actually, now that you mention it," Izuku paused, seemingly only realizing it then. But who could blame him for being distracted? "But that's not why I'm here!"

The blonde was beginning to look interested despite himself. "Oh yeah, what happened?"

Excitement was making him bounce on his feet. Face breaking out into a giddy smile, he began, "Kacchan, you'll never believe it!"

He quickly launched into the story of what happened, mostly focusing on the part where he'd met their childhood hero in the flesh, in action, and then somehow got his approval, all in one fell swoop.

" _You—WHAT?!_ " Kacchan exploded in disbelief. His eyes were bugging out of his head as he accused, "You have _got_ to be fucking with me!"

If the green-haired boy weren't so excited, he would've found it funny. Actually, he still found it kind of funny. With a small laugh, Midoriya showed him the notebook with All Might's autograph as proof. Grinning smugly, he said, "Here! It's totally his handwriting and everything."

"What the fuck, Deku?!" Kacchan frowned. "Why does all the cool shit only ever happen when I'm not fucking around?!l

He only shrugged, suggesting, "Hey, my quirk is based on luck, after all. So, maybe I'm a lucky guy even in other areas too."

Sure, Midoriya's quirk pretty much always relied on luck, but he'd never felt luckier than when he'd somehow managed to survive a villain encounter, see All Might in action and even gain his approval in a way.

This wasn't just some good luck, it was _great_ luck.

Best luck he'd had in ages, really. To be honest, he sort of feared what his next quirk would change into now, because in all likelihood, it would be something terrible just to balance out his karma.

-o-

( _It wasn't like it happened every time, of course, but Izuku's life did seem to go in a pattern of incredible highs and horrible lows, with impossibly good luck one second and even more horrifically bad luck the next._

 _He supposed it made for an interesting biography, at least, if the million copies sold of the unauthorized book meant anything.)_

 _-o-_

" _Okay, that's it!_ " Kacchan snapped furiously. "We are going out right now and you are spreading some of that fucking luck to me!"

"...what?"

Before he could raise any objections, the blonde was already grabbing him by the arm and dragging him towards the street. Clearly, he was serious about his claims. Not that Izuku was all that surprised. His friend wasn't exactly the type to joke about things like this, or, really, joke much at all (unless it was a sarcastic insult or something)

Oftentimes, it seemed like the other boy had no sense of humor, but this was a bit much. Shaking his head, he pointed out dryly, "Kacchan, you know I was kidding, right?"

" _I'm_ fucking _not_." He replied

Izuku only gave a long-suffering sigh that was more put on than anything. He didn't really mind as much as he pretended to. After all, he'd need to be outside to practice his new quirk anyway.

Unsurprisingly, despite roaming nearly all of Mustafa for the rest of the day, and quite well into the night, they encountered nothing more exciting than a stray cat furiously hissing at Kacchan when he managed to accidentally step on its tail.

"Why the fuck is nothing happening?!" Kacchan was screaming out to the heavens, sending explosive blasts up to the sky as though he could somehow fight Fate into giving him something cool to do.

Midoriya could only roll his eyes and stifle a laugh. Because that would almost certainly lead to a fight, and he was still busy working out the kinks to his new quirk.

 _Hurricane Breath_ , as he'd decided to call it, was definitely powerful. Maybe _too_ powerful even. He quickly realized that if he wasn't careful, he could cause literal hurricanes that were strong enough to uproot trees and break apart brick walls. Thankfully, he also realized he could use one blast to essentially "cancel" out the other by reversing the direction he sent it in.

As usual with more powerful quirks, fine control was a bit of a struggle. He had a hard time sending a concentrated blast right where he wanted, at the appropriate strength level. So, while he could easily create a blast that blew off all the leaves on a tree, he couldn't quite so easily do the same to merely pick off a single fruit on it.

Still, it was something that could probably be remedied with more practice. He was already brainstorming all sorts of training exercises he could do. Maybe he could try to keep a water balloon in the air without popping it? The fact that he'd end up wet if he failed would greatly incentivize him to work hard on it, outside of simply wanting to get better.

Maybe he could try to hold his breath as long as he could before using his quirk?

As he'd hypothesized during his fight with the villain, the more air he sucked in before he released, the bigger the blast and the longer it lasted. If he exhaled at any point before he blew with his quirk, it didn't count though.

By sucking air in for nearly a minute, he'd managed to create the tornado that had accidentally smashed one of the walls at the edge of the park before he could manage to cancel it. So far, that had seemed to be his upper limit.

His lower limit was still unknown and needed to be further tested.

-o-

" _—would you shut the fuck up, already!?"_

His train of thought was interrupted abruptly by Kacchan's shouting. An all too typical occurrence over the course of their long friendship, really. By not, he was too used to the other boy to be phased by the shouting, or his rudeness, really. But that didn't mean he didn't keep trying to educate his friend on his poor manners.

"Really, Kacchan. Do you have to be so rude?." Midoriya scolded, shaking his head. "And such language too!"

So, maybe, half of the time, he was just messing with the other boy—but the other half, he was totally trying to get him to clean up his image so he could be a better hero, really!

…Yeah, that was a blatant lie. It was more like maybe only five percent of the time, if that, when he was actually earnest about his efforts to get Kacchan to change. Because, really, not even _he_ was that crazy. Thanks to his quirk, he may have often looked at impossible odds and gambled anyway (he may or may not have a _bit_ of a _problem_ ), but not even he was willing to bet on the chances of Bakugou actually taking any of his advice to be nicer.

"Stop _fucking_ with me, you asshole!" Bakugou growled, inadvertently proving all his points. "And fight me already!"

Angry red eyes were staring daggers at him. Kacchan had clearly given up on fighting the heavens and settled for fighting him instead. Izuku wasn't surprised. Honestly, it was more of a wonder that it had taken until now. He'd expected this to happen long before sunset.

But maybe Kacchan had wanted them to fight against the backdrop of the setting sun. The blonde did have such a flair for the dramatic, after all.

Then again, Izuku did too.

"Am I really the 'asshole' between the two of us?" Midoriya couldn't resist pointing out, right before he dodged a smoking fist from the blonde. "You know, I never actually agreed to fight!"

"Like I said, Deku, you're a shitty fucking liar!" Bakugou shot back, as he lit his fists with several explosions. He had a wild looking smile on his face. An outsider would probably be disturbed to see it, especially if they knew that _this_ was what he looked like when he was giddy with happiness and excitement.

Izuku only grinned with a slightly manic edge to his own lips, not bothering to reply, as he prepared to send his strongest blast by sucking in as much air as he could.

-o-

 ** _BOOOOOMMMMM!_**

Strong winds and explosive blasts?

 _Not_ a good combination.

Especially not for the state of the poor park they'd chosen to stage their fight in.

-o-

" _Fuckfuckfuck!"_

 _"Put it out!"_

 _"I'm trying—_ "

In hindsight, they really should've picked a better location for their fight. Considering the both of them were highly intelligent and logical, they probably should've made the incredibly obvious connection that adding strong wind to explosions would result in significantly stronger explosions.

Thankfully, Midoriya managed to put out the worst of it by sending another blast of wind in the opposite direction and "cancelling" his winds, but he hadn't managed to do it quick enough. The trees in the park were far more bare, with the charred remains of leaves or branches on the ground. There were scorch marks on most of the outdoor furniture and playground equipment, and he thought some of it the metal bits looked a little melty too.

After a long silence, where the two of them could only amidst all the destruction with disbelieving looks on their faces, Bakugou finally spoke, "...let's go."

He was even turning around and getting ready to do so when Midoriya grabbed him by the arm. "Damnit, Kacchan! We can't just leave the place like this!"

"What the fuck do you want to do about then?"

"We have to _fix_ this!"

Between the two of them, they managed to clean up the charred remains on the ground, and brush off the worst of the soot with Midoriya's quirk (it hindered more than helped sometimes, with his still wonky control).

Some of the marks wouldn't come off, and they couldn't exactly make the tree grow back right this instant, so that was really all they could do.

Midoriya was half-tempted to change quirks until he got one that could properly fix this, but he didn't want to part with Hurricane Breath so quickly. Not when it had literally gotten All Might's approval. He was hoping to use it for the entrance exam, if possible.

So, with little else they could do, they left. Midoriya felt guilty enough he promised he would definitely come back to fix it all when he could though.

-o-

( _Midoriya would eventually come back, many many months later, when his quirk changed into Green Thumb, happily slapping his hands onto every tree in the park so they'd grow back every leaf they lost and then some._

 _He would turn the park into a wonderland full of blooming spring flowers and fruits that made everyone in the neighborhood ooh and ahh after.)_

-o-

Aside from nearly burning down a park with their combined quirks, the rest of the night passed quietly, and so did the days after.

Bakugou did start walking to and from school with Midoriya more, but nothing particularly exciting happened during these times, aside from his experiments with his quirk getting a little out of hand. On one memorable occasion, he'd sneezed a little too hard and accidentally activated his quirk in the process, flying like ten feet into the air, before he'd started falling.

Thankfully, he'd managed to slow down his descent with more blasts of air, but after that, he'd gotten a little obsessed with trying to fly using Hurricane Breath. It reminded him of the time he'd had Hover Feet, especially when he'd misjudged his distances once and ended up smacking into Bakugou. His friend was a lot less amused by this little recreation from memory land (but that was his default mood, really, so he ignored it easily.)

-o-

They did not try to fight each other with their quirks again though.

At least, not until they found the right place for it.

Neither of them were eager to get charged with wanton destruction of public property through illegal quirk usage, especially not when they were less than a year away from applying to the premier hero school in the country.

-o-

 _Dagobah Municipal Beach Park_

Once a beautiful recreational area, it became more of a blight to the neighborhood thanks to the trash that had piled up. No one ever came by the place anymore, unless it was to dump more trash.

Basically, the privacy combined with the close proximity to water made it the _perfect_ place for them to fight.

Or so Midoriya thought, anyway. It had taken the blonde a bit more convincing to go near such a trash dump.

But the promise of a fight lured him in soon enough. It had been nearly two months since their destructive fight in the park, and Bakugou had clearly missed it dearly, if the uptick in fights he had with other people meant anything.

Indeed, despite his grumbling about the smell and sight, his much more aggressive friend had all but exploded him as soon as he set foot on the beach. _Literally_. He'd been smiling like a maniac too.

Maybe Izuku was a little bit crazy too, because he'd actually missed the sight of Bakugou high on a fight.

In any case, Izuku managed to dodge the blast on pure instinct, and he sent a large blast of wind in retaliation, grinning his own version of a battle smirk as he did so.

-o-

Dagobah Beach's mountain of trash became smaller that day, and everyday thereafter, as their fighting made a literal firestorm sometimes that burned much of the pile to trash easily.

In only a few months, Dagobah Beach went from being a horrible eyesore of a dumping ground, to a largely clean training ground for them.

Unfortunately for them, everyone else in the neighborhood had quickly noticed this transformation too, and more and more people were flocking to the beach to use it aside from them.

Bakugou was disgruntled about it, but Midoriya wasn't as bothered. It sort of felt _right_ , to be able to help create a new public space (or return an old one to its former glory, anyway), after they accidentally destroyed the last one.

Less positively, it wasn't like they really needed the place anyway, because despite his best efforts, he'd changed quirks again.

-o-

( _Sometimes, he really hated Quirk Change.)_

All it had taken was a cold.

While he didn't accidentally activate his quirk everytime he sneezed, especially once he'd gained more control over it, he quickly found that being sick muddled his senses enough that he was quickly sent flying into the air on reflex every time he sneezed.

Yeah, it got really old really fast after the third time he'd fallen hard enough to bruise, and the traitorous thought of how much he hated his quirk in that moment popped into his head—

-o-

The familiar warmth of his quirk changing had blended in with his slight fever so much he hadn't realized until he was already better, what actually happened.

-o-

Midoriya kept _Hurricane Breath_ , for as long as he possibly could, fully planning on taking the entrance exams with the quirk All Might himself had given his approval on.

In the end, he'd lasted six months.

It was still the longest he'd kept any quirk in years. The only quirks he had kept longer had been his first quirks, before he even knew he could change, and a powerful Telekinesis quirk that had been so much like a more powerful version of his mother's quirk, he'd held onto it easily out of sentimental value.

In truth, considering all this, Midoriya wasn't really that surprised his quirk had changed.

He was a little disappointed, and slightly worried though. Now he had only four months left before the entrance exams, and no quirk to do it with. Well, except he had the quirk he changed into, he supposed.

But somehow, he doubted the likelihood of passing with _Pen Hands_ for a quirk.

It _was_ great for studying and taking notes though, and he took advantage of that to make his study guides for the upcoming written exam portion the best they could be.

It was less great for fighting, and this definitely disappointed Kacchan.

Though Midoriya did consider briefly the possibility of using his pen hands like knives to stab the other boy with, he quickly discarded this. It would probably be worth it just to see the look on his face when he tried it, but he'd probably get blasted with a face full of explosive hands next.

Midoriya was a gambler, but not with those odds.

-o-

Speaking of odds...

With the benefit of hindsight, he realized that something about his quirk change during the fight with the villain was different from his usual ones.

 _Just the perfect quirk_ _for taking down the slime villain._

What were the chances that he'd change to the quirk he needed, out of literally hundreds of thousands to fight against the slime villain?

Practically one-in-a-million, really. Statistically, it had been much more likely for him to pull a "useless" quirk, or one that was powerful but unhelpful for that precise scenario. While he did believe in luck, this did seem to be a little too good to be true.

He'd been close to passing out, likely dying, as he ran out of air.

He needed air. So his quirk gave him air.

Was it possible that was really what happened? Was his Quirk Change not as random as he thought all this time?

If that was true, then this could change _everything_.

-o-

After a few months, however, he was growing very doubtful.

Every change he'd gotten since Hurricane Breath seemed to be a nail in the theory's coffin, since it all seemed as random as ever, despite him literally begging for a specific quirk or need right before his changes.

-o-

Had it really just been amazing luck after all?

-o-

Midoriya couldn't quite believe it, but there was little else he could do. Clearly, even if his theory was true, he was not going to be able to prove it like this.

In all likelihood, he'd only get to test it in a real battle scenario, when his stress and adrenaline levels were running high and he was truly desperate, like with the villain battle.

-o-

Three months left before the entrance exams, with still no quirk he could use, and his panic levels were beginning to soar to villain fight levels.

Unfortunately, his quirk still refused to give him what he needed.

-o-

All he needed was a quirk like Hurricane Breath, a powerful versatile quirk he could use in the entrance exams that would prove to everyone he was great hero material.

Was that really too much to ask?

-o-

( _Yes._

 _He knew better than anyone how much quirks could matter, especially to an aspiring hero._

 _As much as he hated quirk discrimination, as much as he liked to believe no quirk was useless, he could never truly deny the truth._

 _Not all quirks are created equal.)_

-o-

Only two months left, and Midoriya was getting desperate.

He stopped waiting a week between changes. He wasn't even waiting days anymore. He was spending literally just enough time to figure out what his quirk was and then changing it as soon as he came to a conclusion, because he didn't like what it was.

It went against all his instincts and philosophies to do things like this, but he was getting desperate, after all.

-o-

"You just need an offensive quirk." That was Kacchan's only advice.

He'd thought the mutation quirk he'd changed into two weeks ago, where he'd essentially become a minotaur, his entire body changing to that of a bull and all its strength, had been good enough. He'd certainly been much stronger with _Minotaur Body,_ but he wasn't only searching for strength in his quirks.

Not to mention, mutation quirks were some of the hardest for him. They messed with his natural rhythm too much and took too long to get used to. Even then, there was always some tiny part of him that thought things were _wrong_ , and that was the last thing he needed when he was focusing on passing the test of his lifetime.

-o-

In a single week, he went through over a hundred different quirks, before he suddenly collapsed.

 _Quirk overuse,_ was the doctor's diagnosis.

-o-

 _(Unfortunately, this would not be the last time he'd end up in the hospital for such a reason. Even more unfortunately, he'd come with a lot of other injuries aside from the exhaustion caused by quirk overuse.)_

-o-

A month and a half left until the entrance exams, and Midoriya's current quirk was _X-Ray Eyes._

-o-

It wasn't exactly a powerful or flash quirk, certainly nothing Kacchan would be too impressed by. But it was invaluable for surveillance and covert operations. He'd already proved that when he was able to see his mother crying about him and his recklessness to his doctor even through the doors.

-o-

 _(This would not be the last time, he'd make his mother cry either.)_

-o-

….Midoriya was holding off on changing quirks for a while.

-o-

 _X-Ray Eyes_ didn't grant him any extra strength or speed in a fight, but it did allow him to see exactly where someone's vital organs where, so he could much more accurately aim for them a fight, as Kacchan found out during their spar.

It also made sure he could spot anyone hiding out, and it allowed him to see even through thick fog or smoke, so combined with a smoke bomb or something similar, it could give him a great tactical advantage. Like Metal Detector before him, he'd be invaluable on surveillance and rescue missions, especially if he extended his range.

At the moment, he could only see about twenty meters or so around him before he got a terrible headache. After some experimentation, he found that he could essentially choose and toggle between what layers he could see.

So, he could choose to see right into a person's vital organs, or just to see underneath their clothes…

Needless to say, he'd blushed like a cherry red tomato when he'd first stumbled onto that realization by accidentally staring into a female classmate too.

Most of the other potential applications he could think of were even more unsavory than that, and somewhat villainous in nature.

He could see exactly where people kept their cash and other valuables, and he could easily cheat on any tests he wanted by seeing his classmates' answers or simply sneaking a look at the answer key in the teachers' desks.

Midoriya didn't do any of that, of course, but it was sort of a worrying train of thought that probably said something about where his head was at right now.

So it was a relief in more ways than one when he changed his quirk, soon after.

-o-

It took a full day to even figure out what his new quirk was, but basically, he could tell when something was lost, and locate where this lost item was.

With _Lost Finder_ , as he dubbed it, he was able to missing socks, misplaced keys, and all sorts of things he hadn't even realized he'd lost. His mother certainly appreciated his new quirk when he was able to easily find the some spices that had gotten wedged way in the back of the cupboards, just in time to complete the recipe she was working on.

Sure, he wasn't going to be saving anyone from burning buildings or anything, but he was able to help pretty much everyone he met by telling them exactly where whatever lost item they were looking for was, which was apparently just as heroic and lifesaving, if the amount of thanks he got right after meant anything.

Even Kacchan hadn't rolled his eyes too much, when he'd led him straight to pair of headphones he'd been looking for (but he hadn't been saying much about his quirks at all lately, not since the hospital, when he'd called him a fucking dumbass Deku).

-o-

Then, he realized, it even worked on people, as he'd quickly discovered, when he tested it out on someone from a missing persons poster.

It wasn't the kind of flashy power that Bakugou's Explosion was, but it was an amazing power in its own way, he thought, as he watched the woman he'd help find reunite with her family on the news.

There was so much more to heroics than just fighting villains out on the streets, after all.

-o-

( _Kacchan hadn't been quite so easily convinced, but even he had been impressed by the help he'd been able to give to the police._

 _In his own Kacchan way, he'd given his approval, anyway, by telling him, "Don't think this means you're going to be a better hero with this headstart, Deku! We'll see how it fucking goes when we get into UA!"_

 _It was almost sweet of him, really.)_

-o-

An impression swiftly reinforced by his dealings with the police force thereafter. With his tip the first time paying off so successfully, he was called in again to cooperate with many other missing persons cases.

Detective Tsukauchi had been his main contact, after he verified his intentions and information the first time using his Lie Detector quirk (something Midoriya had quietly fanboyed about in his mind)

Using his Lost Finder quirk, he'd been able to help close dozens of cases, according to the detective's updates. Unfortunately, there were a few cases he couldn't seem to get any read on at all. Midoriya theorized that it may have been outside of his quirk's range or limits somehow.

-o-

 _(Later, Midoriya would come to the horrifying realization that he could not find those people, because those people were no longer alive. His quirk did not work on the dead, not when he still believed they were alive._

 _It would work, in likelihood, if he had simply searched for a corpse instead of a living breathing human. But no one the force had been willing to test that theory on the fourteen-year-old aspiring hero.)_

-o-

Once the news broke, Midoriya gotten the deep gratitude from the missing people he'd helped find, as well as their families. Even the police force had been appreciative and commending of his help.

It was an eye-opening experience, in more ways than one.

Maybe he would never find the perfect quirk, because the perfect quirk didn't really exist. Because every quirk was perfect in its own way.

He'd forgotten that.

-o-

Midoriya had less than a month left until the entrance exams for UA, and his quirk was still _Lost Finder._

He wasn't sure if he wanted to change it, if it meant that he would no longer be able to help with the missing persons cases. How could he justify not helping just for his own selfish reasons? If he was truly aiming to be a hero, one like All Might, he couldn't just think of himself.

-o-

Yeah, Kacchan definitely disagreed, and had taken to trying to "beat that shitty thought" out of him lately. Admittedly, Midoriya wasn't exactly looking forward to his chances of passing the entrance exams with Lost Finder as his quirk either, but in some ways, this was more importantly.

He could hardly forget the look on the faces of the people he'd helped saved. They'd looked at him with such joy and hope and belief—they'd looked at him like he was their _hero_.

-o-

In the end, it was Detective Tsukauchi who helped him make up his mind. During the month or so Midoriya had been helping out, they'd come to know each other fairly well. The green-haired boy had been able to properly fanboy over the details and specifics of the man's Lie Detector quirk, even.

"Midoriya, you've been a great help with your quirk. I'm not exaggerating at all when I commend you for that, and I would be incredibly thankful if you could continue to do it." The man began, before he shook his head, adding, "But I know your dream is bigger than this."

Izuku could only stare at him, wide eyed.

"You want to be a hero just like All Might, don't you? To do that, you're going to have to get into UA." Detective Tsukauchi cracked into a rare smile. "It's not being selfish to give yourself the chance to be the best hero you can be, Midoriya."

-o-

 _He had always dreamed of being a hero just like All Might._

-o-

Only a week before the entrance exams, he changed quirks again, heart calm as a still ocean, as he closed his eyes. Whatever quirk he ended up with, he'd most likely use it for the exams, whatever it was.

-o-

 _The familiar warmth blanketed him like the kotatsu on a cold winter night—_


	9. The UA Entrance Exam

Midoriya was bouncing eagerly on his feet with a huge grin on his face, when Bakugou finally arrived at the beach. It had been some time since the green-haired boy was this enthusiastic.

It was enough to make the blonde raised a brow, looking rather skeptical, but the twitch to his lips betrayed his amusement. "So, you've finally got the 'perfect' quirk for the exams, huh?"

" _Yup!_ " Izuku answered, popping the 'p' as he pumped a fist up in the air. "Even better than Hurricane Breath too!" He added with a confident waggle of his brows.

"Hmph, we'll see about that." Bakugou scoffed, before he slipped into a wild grin. That was the only warning before he charged forward, sending explosive blasts from his hands right at Midoriya.

Izuku avoided them easily-by sending out large gusts of wind from his hands that dissipated Kacchan's blasts _and_ sent him flying high into the sky.

The blonde dug his heels into the ground to avoid being sent flying too, as he noted, looking begrudgingly impressed, "A wind quirk again, huh? This time, from just anywhere, too."

"Something like that~!" Midoriya shouted, just as he landed with a flying kick, right towards Bakugou's raised arms.

Despite being momentarily knocked back from the extra force, he managed to avoid tumbling to the ground himself though, with a quick blast of his explosive hands. Making them stronger, he used the momentum to charge right at the green-haired boy, who remained standing where he was, calmly smiling.

Before Bakugou could question this reaction, he was slipping on the sand, which had suddenly raised up from the ground in a large clump. He tumbled down, his explosive hands sputtering out in the process. " _The fuck—-?!_ "

He looked up just in time to get a face full of water. On top of making look like a bedraggled angry cat given a bath, the sudden torrent quickly put out the remaining sparks in his palms too. A furious growl escaped his lips, as he quickly tried to light his hands up again, but failed due to the remaining moisture still on it.

"What the fuck, Deku?!" He screamed accusingly, quickly realizing this was all the other boy's fault, likely due to his quirk

"I told you it was even better than Hurricane Breath." Midoriya grinned, completely unrepentant, before he lit up his own hands, fire bursting from his palms, which he sent straight at Bakugou.

The blonde charged at him, ducking under the flames, and aimed a punch right at his torso. Or where it should've been, anyway. Midoriya had once again leapt into the air with a burst of wind that sent an already imbalanced Bakugou flying to the ground.

-o-

Needless to say, it was totally Midoriya's win today.

Bakugou had been angry, but not for too long, because not even he could keep up his anger in the face of the sheer _awesomeness_ of his new quirk. Midoriya's enthusiasm may have been just the tiniest bit infectious too.

Or maybe it was just the possibility of him being able to get some revenge in the ensuing experiments to test the limits of his newest quirk.

Whatever the case, the two of them spent the rest of the day quite happily wrecking the newly cleaned beach together with a mixture of both their very powerful and destructive quirks.

-o-

Yeah, so it turned out, the quirk he changed into was all but _perfect_ , basically.

-o-

Midoriya wasn't sure whether this proved or disproved his theory, considering the circumstances, and too add to the coincidence—or fate, or whatever it was—it was an elemental quirk again.

This wasn't technically that unusual, since they were fairly common, and over the years, he'd managed to change into some variation of an elemental quirk many, many times. Though they were usually much weaker and limited than Hurricane Breath, or, especially, his current quirk— _Elemental Cycle_.

Out of the many similar quirks he'd changed to, this was possibly the most powerful, even if only thanks to its inherent versatility, since he could generate and manipulate _four_ different elements, instead of only the typical single one.

The only catch, as implied by the name, was that he could only use each element in a very specific cycle. He _had_ to use air, then earth, then water then fire, before going back to air, then earth, and so one. Skipping a single one was not possible. Neither was repeating one.

It was quite a strict and strange limitation, but then, every quirk had at least one.

-o-

His true quirk, Quirk Change, had the limitation of him being unable to choose what he could change his quirk to, after all.

Supposedly, anyway.

Midoriya still had his theories about that, but it was put on the back burner for now. He had Elemental Cycle, and an entrance exam to work on, still.

-o-

If he thought about it more, Midoriya wasn't sure he liked how quickly he forgot his own revelations on the hidden power of all quicks when he was faced with a quirk that was so perfectly suited for flashy heroics.

But it was hard to care _too_ much about those things in the face of his giddy childish excitement. Not to mention, this certainly solved pretty much all his problems with the entrance exams.

There was no way he'd fail with Elemental Cycle as his quirk, after all.

-o-

 _February 28th_. The day of the entrance exams finally arrived.

Thanks to his current quirk, Midoriya felt more eager than nervous as he and Bakugou both made their way towards the UA campus.

Since he'd only had it for basically a week, he hadn't really gotten to test it out as much as he'd wanted, unfortunately, but it was enough for him to get a decent handle on it. The fact that he'd had a lot of experience with similar elemental-type quirks in the past helped a lot.

Though the specific details were slightly different, the general concept was usually the same across all of them. By applying everything he'd learned from various other air, earth, water and quirks he'd had before, he could manage to use Elemental Cycle with surprising amount of mastery despite the short time he'd actually had it.

"I can't believe we're really here," Midoriya couldn't help but note, as he briefly stared up in awe at the famous building they were so close to. "Can you believe that we'll actually be entering the halls where so many pro heroes once walked through too?"

"Yeah, soon we'll be one of them," Bakugou replied confidently before rolling his eyes. "Now, stop fucking staring at it like a loser and get inside! We'll be walking inside this fucking place every damned day soon enough."

"Wow, Kacchan, you could at least pretend to be a _little_ nervous about the exams," Midoriya said teasingly.

"Why the fuck would _I_ be _nervous?"_ The blonde merely scoffed. "There's no way I'm fucking failing!"

Midoriya shrugged, unable to deny the point. Well, he probably could. But then the blonde would try to start a fight right there and they didn't want to be late for the exam.

"So, you better not fucking fail either, Deku!"

Coming from him, they were the sweetest words of encouragement he could probably expect. Grinning, he replied. "Love you too, Kacchan."

"Ugh, fuck you, Deku! I hope you fucking fail."

-o-

They didn't have much more time to talk to each other, after that. Once they were all ushered into the auditorium, where _Present Mic,_ the Voice Hero, began to explain the rules of the practical portion of their exam.

"Woah, I can't believe Present Mic is the one hosting this!" Midoriya whispered to Kacchan eagerly. "I listen to his radio show all the time! How does he find the time to keep that up, be a pro hero and a teacher here at UA too?"

Well used to his fanboy antics around heroes, Bakugou only rolled his eyes, "Focus on the fucking exam, not your fanboying, dumbass."

"Oh, right," Midoriya cut himself off mid-ramble with that realization. As cool as it was to have a real live pro hero doing the intro, he should probably be focusing on the actual intro if he wanted to do his best here.

Present Mic was explaining all about the different points they could get depending on whatever faux-villain they fought. A student immediately raised his hand to ask a question. But he didn't wait for an answer, as he quickly shifted focus by suddenly turning around and loudly announcing, "—-and you two in the back! You've been chatting to each other the whole time. It's distracting!"

Midoriya blinked, a finger pointed towards himself in question, before shrugging. "Uh, sorry, I guess?"

He hadn't been aware he was quite that loud, since he'd mostly just been whispering to Kacchan. Then again, this kid did seem like the type who'd have thought even the softest of noises was too loud for him.

" _Fuck off, glasses!_ " Bakugou shot back, rude as ever and completely unrepentant. "Who the fuck was even talking to you?"

"...maybe we should just get back to rules of the exam," Midoriya suggested, staring straight at Present Mic, as the boy with glasses straightened up, looking quite ready to delivery a strongly worded scolding to Kacchan's rude reply.

"The curly-haired boy is right! And nice catch! The fourth variety is worth zero points! Consider him more of an obstacle to be avoided!" Present Mic cut in.

"Thank you, sir! I apologize for the interruption!" The boy with the glasses said, as he sat down.

Bakugou didn't bother to say anything other than scoff, while Midoriya gave a slightly sheepish smile, before leaning forward to better listen to the rest of the explanation.

There wasn't much more left though, and soon, they were all being shuttled off into their different groups, as Present Mic shouted the school's motto behind them.

"Good luck, Kacchan!" Midoriya called out, just before they separated. Being from the same middle school, they were obviously sorted into different groups

"Yeah, yeah. See you later!" He raised his hand up in parting, before turning away.

-o-

The testing grounds were huge. It was essentially a mini city, and Midoriya could only stare out in amazement. Definitely a step up from training at Dagobah beach, he thought.

Everyone was clearly feeling pumped too. The overall mood was tense with excitement and eagerness, as they all got ready to do their best. In the midst of it all, Midoriya almost felt strangely calm. He could do this, he thought. Kacchan would never forgive him if he failed, after all. Really, he would never forgive himself either.

From the corner of his eye, he noted the boy with glasses was also in this group. His gaze narrowed into a close as soon as he noticed him looking. Clearly, he had not forgotten what had happened earlier. Briefly, Midoriya wondered if he ought to apologize for earlier, even if he didn't think he was really that much at fault. But now was hardly the time, after all.

Right now, they had a practical exam to do, as the voice suddenly booming in the air reminded everyone.

The test was starting now.

Once Present Mic made that point extremely clear, everyone rushed in as a group. Midoriya was unfortunate enough to be at the back of this pack.

But not for long.

With a gust of wind, he sent himself flying through the air, high above everyone else, only landing nimbly on the ground once he was quite some distance ahead of them.

So he was the first one to see the faux-villains they would be fighting. Or more specifically, the robots. Because their physical exam was them fighting huge fucking robots.

 _Plus Ultra!_ He thought giddily, as he broke out into a grin that would've rivalled Bakugou's in wildness.

Robots meant he had no need to hold back, after all.

A large column of earth sprung up from the ground, right through the core of the robot. That was three points already, according to Present Mic's diagram earlier.

-o-

 _"Woah, what's that kid's quirk?"_

 _"Wasn't he the kid who was chatting during the intro?"_

 _"Damn, I thought he'd be a wimp!"_

 _"How the hell do I compete with that?!"_

-o-

The exam was, if he was being completely honest, pretty easy. Thanks to Elemental Cycle, Midoriya was easily crushing robots and racking up points, left and right.

The hardest part was probably just finding enough robots to take down, since he was going through them so quickly.

But even this was easily remedied by simply flying high up enough to scout the surrounding area before he chose a target. In fact, from his vantage point up in the sky, he could easily snipe the robots with little risk, since they couldn't harm him from such a distance. The only trouble was since he had to switch elements every time he used them, he couldn't constantly keep himself in the air with his winds.

This was the most frustrating limitation of his quirk. The firm cycle order he had to keep to use any element meant he had to plan out his moves pretty well in advance. Though he could easily cheat it simply by quickly using one element in a frivolous way, such as briefly lighting up a tiny flame or creating a few droplets of water, so he could move onto the next one in the cycle.

In any case, there were plenty of options. The versatility of Element Cycle, even with its limitations, was what made it possible the perfect quirk to take the entrance exams with, and then some.

Using his winds for scouting and long distance sniping when he was up in the sky and then going for more close ranger fighting with his other elements, proved to be quite an effective combination against the robots.

-o-

" _Six minutes left!"_

Midoriya let go of the stream of fire from his hands, watching the half-melted robot break apart almost immediately after with a small satisfied smirk. Though he could've shot back into the air again to look for more robots, he allowed himself a moment to observe everyone else on the ground around him first.

"Twenty-eight points," One tired girl breathed out. She looked vaguely familiar, and he thought she might've been right next or near him and Kacchan when they'd first entered. Her quirk, from what he'd observed from the exam, was to make things either much, _much_ lighter, or completely weightless. A quirk with a lot of potential, he thought.

"Forty-five points!" The boy with glasses who had scolded them earlier called out as he smashed a robot. Midoriya had glimpsed him running to and fro earlier, and the smoking engines on his legs made his quirk quite obvious.

He heard quite a few other people keeping track of their running scores, observing all the different quirks around him as they worked. For a quirk-obsessed guy like him, it was all incredibly fascinating. He itched to have his notebooks with him to record it all.

But, alas, as a robot drew close and waved a threatening arm at him, he reminded himself that he had to focus. Sending a large blast of wind in the robot's direction, it flew smack into a building, just in time for said building to morph and crush it.

"Sixty points," Midoriya called out his own running tally with a grin.

He wondered how Kacchan was doing. In all likelihood, the blonde was going berserk and destroying every robot in sight. Which one of them would get the higher score? He wondered.

Izuku wasn't exactly a super competitive person by nature, unlike his blonde friend, but the thought of Kacchan's reaction to him beating his score was more than enough motivation to keep him moving forward and searching for more robots. Sure, he probably had more than enough to pass now, but Plus Ultra, after all. He was getting a little tired, but he still had enough strength to rack up a few more points, he thought.

-o-

Just as Midoriya finished frying another robot for a sweet three points, _it_ happened.

It being a truly gigantic robot that began rampaging through the mini city.

The zero-pointer obstacle, Midoriya quickly surmised. They really hadn't been kidding about the school motto being going above and beyond things.

Unsurprisingly, the sight of it had everyone running in the exact opposite direction. Even if it wasn't a gigantic robot that would probably crush everything in its footsteps, it was worth zero points after all. There was literally zero point in even trying to get close to it.

….unless it meant saving someone else from a robotic death, that is.

With wide eyes, Midoriya realized the girl with the weight-affecting quirk was trapped underneath some rubble and unable to run away like everyone else. She was also right on the path of the zero-pointer.

Without another thought, he _moved_. Thankful that he hadn't yet used his wind, he was able to quickly send himself hurtling through the air, sending huge gusts of winds everywhere that broke the glass and concrete of the buildings he passed. Midoriya hardly cared though, as he focused on getting to the girl as quickly as possible.

He was going so fast he nearly overshot himself, and only just managed to stop by sending another blast of wind forward. This had the added bonus of sending the gigantic robot momentarily stumbling back. It wasn't only for a short time, unfortunately, but that was all he needed.

Using his earth manipulation, Midoriya was easily able to lift the rubble off her while his hands worked on physically pulling her out underneath. Once she was free, he quickly doused the both of them in some water. The girl sputtered slightly at the sudden cold.

There was no time for apologies or explanations though. The water washed off some off the dirt on them both, and worked as minor protection for his next action, which was to send a huge blast of fire in the direction of the robot.

This had more of an effect on the robot, but it still wasn't quite enough.

-o-

" _One minute remaining!"_

-o-

Midoriya knew just what to do though. His past experience with Kacchan had taught him that.

With a smirk, he quickly sent blasts of air right into the inferno, which quickly magnified the existing fire by nearly tenfold. Then, he added all the stray rubble in the area into the equation too, trapping the robot firmly within the fiery blaze that was _still_ growing in size.

If they didn't leave soon, they were going to be caught up in said blaze as well though, as the area close to them started erupting into flames too. Midoriya quickly sent a wave of water to douse the ones closest to them. At this point, the flames engulfing the robot were more than large enough this wouldn't affect it much.

Then, he before briefly lit up his hands just to use his fire, so he could move on. Literally too. Because if they didn't move it immediately, they were going to end up moving on from this plane of existence.

" _Hold on tight,_ " Midoriya told her, quickly grabbing her in a fireman's carry, before he sent the strongest blasts of wind he could to propel them in the opposite direction of the robot and the fire. This was, unfortunately, not as strong as he'd like, and despite his best efforts, they weren't flying fast or far enough yet.

He was breathing pretty hard by now, the strain of using so many powerful blasts in quick succession taking their toll, but he could hardly stop now. They still weren't quite far enough from the blast radius of what was promising to be an epic looking explosion.

Just as he got ready to push himself past his limits, however, he suddenly found his load had lightened quite significantly, and it was taking much less effort for him to fly with someone in his arms.

Not bothering to question this miracle for the moment, he quickly pulled the winds around them and propelled them both as fast as he could.

They managed to get away just in time.

-o-

 ** _BOOOOOMMMMMM!_**

-o-

In the observation room, where a multitude of screens were displaying live feeds from all over the grounds, the faculty and staff of UA were observing the prospective students, and similarly exploding with talk.

 _"Did he really just..?"_

 _"The first time I've seen anyone take out a zero-pointer like that!"_

 _"When was the last time anyone took out a zero-pointer at all?"_

-o-

Midoriya and the girl in his arms tumbled to the ground in a rather less than gentle landing. His fine control over his winds was rather thoroughly shot after all the successive blasts at full power he'd just done, after all.

He thought about getting up, but decided against instead. He merely rolled over so he'd face his companion. Thoroughly wiped out, and rather bruised by his fall, he nonetheless remembered to ask, "Are you… alright?"

The girl groaned. There was a sort of green tint to her cheeks that made it look like she would throw up any moment now. After a few deep breaths, however, she managed to gasp out, "I'm f-fine. Just nauseous..."

Midoriya gave a tired laugh. "That's… good. Better than being burned to a crisp, right?"

Despite still looking quite sick, she gave him an answering smile and a shaky thumbs up.

-o-

" _It's all over!"_

-o-

Midoriya still hadn't bothered to stand up, despite the signal of the end of the exams, still feeling way too tired to do anything more than stare blankly at the sky above nim.

But when he saw a hand float into his vision, offering help, he could hardly refuse. Taking the proffered hand, he managed to slowly stand up as well, albeit on some very shaky legs. He almost immediately had to lean on the girl who'd held out her hand to him.

"Ah, sorry," he said, as he tried to properly get on his feet. But the girl quickly waved his attempts away.

"It's fine! It's the least I could do after you saved me. Thank you for that!" She grinned widely at him. Though there was still a slightly unwell look to her, she didn't seem like she was going to puke anymore. That was good. "I'm Ochako Urakara, by the way!"

Though he was feeling tired down to his bones at the moment, he felt himself perk up too. Her enthusiasm was infectious. "You're welcome. I'm Midoriya Izuku."

"Nice to meet you! Your quirk is incredible! I've seen elemental quirks before, but never four of them in one person!"

Midoriya gave a sheepish smile. He wondered if he should try to explain what his actual quirk was, before deciding he was a bit too tired for that incredibly long discussion right now. Besides, so long as he kept it, Elemental Cycle was effectively his quirk anyway, "Ah, yeah. I'm pretty _lucky_ , thanks. Your quirk is really cool too!"

He would've said it no matter what Ochako's quirk was, of course, because he liked to believe every quirk was special in its own way, but now that he remembered what her quirk was, Midoriya's eyes widened in realization, the pieces quickly sliding into place. "You have a quirk that makes things weightless, right?"

"Ah, yeah, my quirk is Zero Gravity," she explained with a startled look. "I can remove gravity's effects on objects. How did you know?"

"I saw you using it on those robots earlier, and took a guess. I like to observe different quirks a lot so I was kinda paying attention to everyone earlier." Midoriya gave a slightly sheepish laugh, before turning more earnest, as he added, "And you used it on both of us, just now, so we could fly away faster. You basically saved us both too."

Ochako blushed. "Well, I realized I could help, so of course I had to do it."

Midoriya grinned, "Me too."

-o-

Recovery Girl herself walked onto the field and started healing everyone with injuries. There wasn't much she could do for Midoriya and Ochako though, who only had a few bruises and scrapes, but nothing too extreme. Their biggest problem was simply exhaustion from quirk overuse.

Indeed, Midoriya was so tired he could barely muster up a fraction of his usual fanboy enthusiasm at having Recovery Girl herself being the one treating everyone after the exam. After exhausting himself so thoroughly, he was ready to just flop onto the bed and sleep the rest of the day away.

Thankfully, once they were given the all clear medically, they were allowed to leave. Midoriya, Ochako, and many others, soon left the grounds. Everyone looked pretty banged up after the exams, even with Recovery Girl's help.

Just as they all started to separate, Ochako turned towards him, smiling. "Thanks again, for saving me. I really thought I was a goner for a moment there."

"It's no problem. Thanks for saving me, too. You know, our quirks make for a really good combination together." Midoriya replied, looking eager, as he went on. "We should try it again sometime and see how far we can go, you know, without a burning robot explosion to worry about."

Already, he was whirring with the different experiments they could try out. Maybe they could even add Kacchan to the mix? Though the blonde was probably a little too much like a burning robot explosion for comfort. Maybe not.

"Oh yeah, sure! That would be great," Ochako answered happily. "Why don't we exchange emails?"

-o-

They went their separate ways, once they left the main building.

As expected, Midoriya soon ran into Kacchan, who didn't quite wait for him exactly, but had clearly been walking slower than usual, because the green-haired boy had easily caught up to him despite taking the extra time to talk to Ochako after the test.

"Hey, Kacchan," he greeted with a smile, that while genuinely cheerful contained far less energy than he had this morning.

"Deku, you're actually talking like a normal fucking human now." Bakugou noted, with all his usual tact, raising a brow. "What the fuck happened in your exams?"

"Hmm.. that's a long story. Put simply, there was a truly epic explosion, the likes of which will probably be talked about for ages to come…" He began, gaining more of usual energy as he added all the proper drama to his telling (not that it needed much help, really).

Kacchan had been equal parts impressed, frustrated and disbelieving once he done.

"I can't fucking believe you." He shook his head, before quickly correcting himself, "No, wait, actually, I can definitely believe a dumbass Deku like you would do that."

Midoriya scoffed, "Psshh. You're just jealous that you didn't get to beat down a giant robot."

"More like _you're_ jealous I was smart enough not to fucking bother with useless shit. You do remember the giant fucking robot was worth zero points, right?"

"... _you_ do remember I was saving someone from the robot, right?" Midoriya pointed out, before shrugging. "Anyway, I have enough points."

"Not more than me, though." Kacchan replied, smirking.

Izuku only rolled his eyes, completely unsurprised this was the part that his friend was focusing on. "Yeah, yeah. Good for you."

He was only being slightly sarcastic too. 77 points, if the blonde's own count was to be believed, was quite an impressive total. Midoriya's own 63 points total fell rather short of it, though he personally thought his win against the zero-pointed should've added like another fifty points or something.

"I still managed to defeat a giant fucking robot though." Midoriya couldn't help but point out, making Bakugou roll his eyes this time.

"Whatever. I could've taken one out too, if I wanted to."

"Keep telling yourself that." He couldn't resist teasing.

Eyes narrowing angrily in response, he spat out, "Fuck you, Deku. Do you wanna eat a fucking explosion right now?" Despite the threat, he had yet to light up his hands. In all likelihood, despite his boasts, he was also way too exhausted from the exams to actually use his quirk in any significant way.

Maybe that was why Midoriya couldn't help but grin as he pushed the blonde's buttons further, "Yeah, you're my best friend and I care about you too, Kacchan."

Bakugou didn't manage to light up an explosion, even after that, but he was all too able send a punch normally anyway. Though he didn't do much more than that, and didn't even bother sending another one when Izuku ended up avoiding him easily. For Bakugou, that was all but the equivalent of a tearful bear hug.

-o-

The day of the entrance exams for UA was definitely one Midoriya was never going to forget.

( _Nor would anyone else, because this was going to be quite a historic day, in more ways than one, and it would all be thanks to Midoriya.)_


	10. Exam Results & Reactions

**A/N: Consider this a breather chapter before the plot starts kicking into action again. This was originally supposed to include Uraraka and Midoriya's meet-up/training session already, but it got way too long, so that's gonna happen next chapter instead (along with Bakugou meeting Uraraka too! Get ready for explosions, lol).**

 **Also there are two minor OCs introduced here that'll probably show up again in the future, but nothing too major (f** **air warning, there will likely be more minor OCs introduced in the future too)** **!**

 **Basically, I just wanted Midoriya to have some other friends, aside from Bakugou, unlike in canon, to further distinguish how different he is in this verse. In hindsight, I feel like he probably should've had them all this time, but I don't really wanna go back and edit the previous chapters, and I figure the explanation that he's been hyper focused on his quirk/training so much works too. Bakugou is his training partner, so he's like the only exception.**

 **Plus, my headcanon is that Bakugou's view about them all being "extras" and his pt about them not taking the hero's thing seriously has also seeped into Midoriya's mindset subconsciously. Combined with his previous experience of being ostracized by his peers for his quirk, he's also sort of been holding their classmates at arm's length all this time, so he's never been able to really let anyone in as anything closer than a friendly acquaintance.  
**

 **Also:**

 **This sort of devolved into a chat fic by the end, and I realized how much I love doing chatfics pretty much immediately so get ready for there to be a chat fic companion fic to this one (just so this doesn't get bogged down by it lol). My headcanon for Izuku & Ochako is that they both abuse Kaomojis way too much as u can see (no it's totally not just as excuse for me to abuse them i swear)**

 **I've already got the chatfic half done, so hopefully it'll also be up by tonight, or possibly tomorrow!**

 **Lastly, I was worried I wouldn't be able to update today, since I've been busy with a work event all week, up til yesterday night. but I managed to finish in time, and it even got too long I had to cut it up, haha. Clearly, the muse is strong with this fic, so enjoy~!**

* * *

They had a week before the results of the entrance exams came out the week, and until they got their results back, there wasn't much else to do.

For the first day, Midoriya essentially spent it just sleeping, recovering some much needed energy after the crazy fighting he did for the exams. After that, he'd been back to his usual energetic self.

Well, sort of. He was certainly much less crazily driven to train than usual. For the first time in quite some time, he was taking a much needed break. He didn't use his quirk at all, and mostly just lazed around the house, occasionally helping out his mom as needed.

He chatted a little with Ochako, who was just as cheerful and enthusiastic in her normal state as Izuku got when fanboying over heroes or quirks.

Though they had talked a bit about meeting up, they hadn't come to any concrete agreements yet. Midoriya suspected she was waiting for the results, but didn't say anything other than reassuring her they would both pass. He was still pretty tired from the exams and felt like taking a break from training for a while anyway.

-o-

Kacchan wasn't quite so happy about this arrangement. But he was clearly pretty tired from the exams and all their training leading up to it too, because he didn't actually do more than give a token protest, before conceding to Midoriya's plans.

Unlike usual, where they typically spent most of their time together either fighting each other with their quirks or experimenting on how to improve their quirks, this time, they were mostly just playing a bunch of video games together.

They were mostly competitive fighting games admittedly, because they clearly couldn't stray too far off brand, but there were some co-op games, shooters and RPGs too. Once, Midoriya had even convinced him to play some party games, and managed to get the blonde hilariously hooked on them pretty much instantly. He should've expected the competitive nature to get to Kacchan. Personally, he thought he already won the moment he managed to get a dead serious Bakugou so very intensely moving his controller to try to get the most "love arrows" from the weird baby cupid first.

Their parents were just happy that they weren't breaking anything or coming home with dirty clothes and scrapes all over like usual, though during one particularly heated fighting game, they-that is, _Bakugou_ did up accidentally breaking a controller when he threw it at Izuku's head after he lost. Obviously, the green-haired boy had dodged it, saving himself a bruised temple. Unfortunately, the controller had smashed against a wall.

Mitsuki had given him quite a scolding after that, with Bakugou giving angry accusing glares in his direction the entire time, especially when he couldn't help but let slip a laugh.

Needless to say, they stayed away from fighting games-or really, any competitive games after that. But playing a co-op game together was its own sort of disaster, so in the end, they'd somehow ended up just spending their time on a strangely engrossing and relaxing farming game instead.

Who knew Bakugou was such a beast at managing a farm? Not even Midoriya with his meticulous planning and overly detailed organizational charts could compete.

-o-

Near the end of the week, a bunch of his classmates had invited him to hang out, in celebration of their upcoming graduation. Spurred on by the realization that they would all soon be going in very different directions in life, and likely never seeing each other again, he accepted the invitation and even tried to get Kacchan to join in, though that was sort of a lost cause.

As usual, the blonde was completely dismissive of hanging out with a bunch of "extras", especially since, unlike the crowd they'd hung around with in kindergarten and grade school, these people weren't just hanger-ons to Bakugou's popularity who would do anything he wanted. If anything, they were probably more willing to be Midoriya's "minions", as it were, though he certainly didn't think of it or them that way.

In any case, it had actually been a lot of fun to just let loose and act like a bunch of regular middle schoolers. They went to the arcade, strolled around the mall and had a mini class party at a Karaoke place later that night. It was pretty nice experience, all around, and he got to know some of his classmates a lot better-enough that Midoriya sort of regretted not choosing to hang out with them more before now. Well, he didn't really regret choosing to train his quirk in pursuit of his dream, of course, but maybe he could've chosen to balance things a bit better.

If he had, maybe he would've realized before then that Haruto was a smart guy who knew a lot about human anatomy and first aid techniques because he was aiming to be a doctor. He would've been super helpful during the many times Midoriya had ended up hurting himself when he was training with his quirk.

Speaking of quirks, Haruto didn't have half as helpful a quirk as someone like Recovery Girl, since his quirk Temperature Adjustment only allowed him to change the temperature of an object, but that hardly mattered compared to his drive and studious personality. Still, they had ended up getting into quite a discussion when Midoriya had been quick to suggest ways his quirk would help his goals too, such as in heating up medical tools to help sanitize them and make incisions easier. Not to mention the benefits of his quirk in helping with heat stroke or hypothermia victims.

Then there was Yuna, who'd jumped into the discussion when she asked if he could heat or even cook his food just using his quirk. It turned out that Haruto could, but bringing the temperature up to boiling point took a lot out of him, so it simply wasn't practical. Nonetheless, he'd quite readily obliged to Yuna's request to reheat her soup for her anyway, cheek turning a slight pink, when she'd happily thanked him.

Afterwards, Yuna had given some of her own suggestions to help too, when she suggested how helpful his quirk could be in a greenhouse, since she was a budding horticulturist in particular. Her own quirk, Freeze Position, which allowed her to freeze an object in a certain pose for a limited amount of time, wasn't very powerful, but quite helpful in small ways, such as when finding the perfect arrangement for a bouquet of flowers.

It was kind of silly, but Midoriya hadn't quite realized how many other kinds of dreams people could have. For him, it had always been heroes and nothing else. He'd never even considered going into anything else, though he found the talk about medical practices changing with the advent of quirks with Haruto fascinating, and he also quite enjoyed finding out from Yuna about the many different meanings and histories behind flowers, and the art of Ikebana in particular.

Midoriya may have missed the chance to talk to Haruto and Yuna, along with many of his other classmates he'd unconsciously dismissed thanks to his own single-minded focus on his dreams in middle school, but it wasn't like they couldn't still talk in the future.

When, near the end of the party, the entire class promised to keep in touch, Izuku cheered perhaps the loudest of them all, promising to himself that he would make sure of it. Maybe he'd even drag Kacchan into it too.

-o-

 _(Midoriya was a man of his word, and he'd definitely keep it. At least, to the best of his abilities, anyway. Hero work was incredibly busy work, and even as a student in UA's hero course, he'd found free time a depressingly rare commodity._

 _Thankfully, thanks to technology, and the power of class group chats, he'd managed to keep in touch with many of his old middle school classmates._

 _He'd been there to congratulate Haruto on getting into medical school, watched Yuna on television doing some incredibly things with her flower arrangements while creatively using her quirk, and been there to give a toast on their wedding day, as he gleefully recounted Haruto's blushing cheeks to everyone there.)_

-o-

All in all, the week after the UA entrance exams was probably the most peaceful week of Midoriya's life, and he was almost sad to see it end.

-o-

 _(It would be the most peaceful week he'd have in his lifetime, basically._

 _After this, after entering UA, really, his life would never be the same. It would be one danger after another. Such was the fate of a pro hero, even one that was just in training, thanks to the rather unique set of unfortunate circumstances that their class had gotten in._

 _If he'd known that at the time, that this would basically be the end of his childhood and peaceful existence so far, he definitely would've taken advantage and stretched it out as much as he could, appreciating every single lazy moment possible._

 _But, honestly, even if he'd known, he wasn't sure if he would've changed a thing. It had been a nearly_ perfect _week, after all.)_

-o-

Inevitably, however, the week passed by, and the letter they had all been waiting for finally arrived. Midoriya and Bakugou had agreed beforehand to meet up once they found out their individual results.

There turned out to be several surprises inside, Izuku quickly discovered. First, All Might, of all people, was the one to deliver their results. Apparently, he was actually going to be teaching at UA for the coming new school year.

Clearly, Midoriya just had all the luck.

So far, he'd been rather accepting of the fact that his only likely interaction with his favorite hero was going to be the one time he'd accidentally gotten caught up in a villain, but now he was going to be his _teacher?_

Midoriya had always thought he was lucky, considering his quirk. But this seemed to be some of the best luck he'd had so far. What were the chances that the year he got into UA would be the year All Might taught too?

Maybe it was luck, maybe it was fate. At this point, he wasn't sure he entirely cared so long as it kept going in his favor like this.

Indeed, today seemed to be his luckiest day, because the results were not what he expected. The green-haired boy had let out a startled cry of disbelief when All Might continued to explain the entrance exam's secret.

That is to say, _rescue points._

So, while, as expected, both he and Kacchan had indeed managed to pass the exams, gaining exactly the amount they'd counted out at the end, their final rankings were not what they thought.

With 63 villain points and 60 rescue points for a combined total of 123 points, Midoriya Izuku had scored a new record for the top score in the UA entrance exam.

With 81 vilain points and 0 rescue points, Bakugou was a distant and very angry second place.

Midoriya couldn't help it. He started laughing pretty much immediately once the fact sunk in. After all of his friend's talk about how him defeating the giant robot at the end "didn't count", so he won between the two of them, to have _this_ happen—- _Kacchan was going to be so pissed._

Probably, it said something about Midoriya, and his friendship with Bakugou in particular, that this thought all but sent him into hysterics.

Well, it was probably best if he got most of his laughter out of the way now.

He probably wouldn't even survive to get to his first day of school at UA if he showed up to Kacchan's place laughing at him like this.

-o-

Eventually, Midoriya managed to get a hold of himself—after nearly passing out from laughing too much—and get himself over to Kacchan's place to share the news. Before he could though, he found the blonde had much the same idea, and he was already waiting at his doorstep.

He was also pissed off as hell and shouting that he was a _damned fucking cheater_.

Midoriya clearly had no fear or self-preservation instincts, because he only shrugged, replying with a teasing smirk, "Hey, I don't make the rules, Kacchan. No need to be a _sore loser_."

-o-

Needless to say, they spent the rest of that day fighting until Bakugou was satisfied—meaning until he managed to get a win over the other boy.

Though Midoriya pointed out that the blonde had only done so by "cheating" himself and throwing _sand in his eyes_ , Kacchan clearly only counted cheating when it worked against him.

Well, it wasn't like Midoriya didn't understand the necessity of fighting dirty sometimes. But _damn_ , getting sand in your eyes seriously _hurt_. So, who could blame him for getting his revenge by all but gleefully telling Kacchan that according to All Might, he'd literally set a new UA record with his incredibly high scores?

...clearly, Bakugou could, if the explosions being sent his way meant anything.

Oh well, Midoriya could use the practice anyway.

After lazing around for a week, he was ready to get back into the swing of training himself and his quirk everyday. He was going to be pro hero, after all, and at the premier school for them too. It was hardly the time to be slacking off.

-o-

( _If he'd known, this was his last bit of peace, before his life pretty much turned into a whirlwind of craziness, he might not have been so eager to get back to his usual routine of fighting and training with Bakugou._

 _Then again, maybe not._

 _It was this somewhat obsessive routing of fighting and training that had saved his life more than once, after all.)_

-o-

Eventually, Bakugou managed to calm down from the news. In the sense that getting it pointed out no longer had him picking a fight with Izuku, but only made him twitch and growl a little angrily.

Good thing too, because their parents had quickly taken it upon themselves to throw them both a celebration dinner once they found out the news of their acceptance into UA.

On top of the joint family dinner, mostly cooked by Inko, he and Kacchan had gotten smooshed together for a couple of pictures with their letters (or, well, the hologram thingies that came inside them). In a few of them, Kacchan had even managed a pleased smirk or two.

After all, they were both going to UA—a school with a hideously low passing rate—like they had always dreamed of. Despite Bakugou's claims about it being just as expected, it was still definitely something worth celebrating.

-o-

Their middle school thought so too.

They'd gotten called into the faculty room on their last day of school, where their teachers congratulated the both of them on getting in.

"How wonderful that two of our students have made it into UA-and the top two highest scorers too!" Their homeroom teacher proclaimed proudly. "Good job both of you, especially you, Midoriya! Though I can't say any of us are surprised. We always knew you'd do great things! Ah, you too, of course, Bakugou!"

The boy in questioned smiled, though internally, he was wondering if the teacher realized just how close he was to danger with those words. Kacchan had gritted his teeth at that, looking like he was seriously contemplating the pros and cons of exploding a teacher.

Hoping to diffuse the tension and get them out of there faster, Midoriya quickly replied, "Thank you, sir! We'll definitely do our best at UA!"

"Yeah, and _I'll_ be the number one hero, after." Kacchan added bluntly after that.

The older man gave an indulgent laugh. "Ah, youth! Well, good luck to you both, and don't forget Aldera in the future!""

Once they left the staff room, the blonde immediately blurted out with a glare, "Gods, could you fucking believe this bullshit?! Ugh, you damned cheating Deku! This is your fault, stealing fucking first place from me!"

Izuku rolled his eyes. "Seriously? This, again? How many times do I have to say it-I don't make the rules, Kacchan. It's not my fault, you decided not to fight the zero-pointer, or do any kind of rescuing people during the exam."

"For fuck's sake, the name is zero-pointer! Why the fuck would I have fought it?! And why the fuck should I be helping the damn losers who couldn't hack it during the middle of a fucking exam?!"

The green-haired boy didn't bother replying this time, since he'd just be wasting his breath yet again.

He'd already explained the importance of having a rescue aspect to the exam, in order to compensate for the nature of the practicals being biased against those with strong offensive quirks. Not to mention, it was important to emphasize a heroic instinct in prospective Heroics students, after all. People who would prioritize a test or their own selfish interests over people in actual danger didn't sound too heroic.

Of course, while it was a bit underhanded to have such an important aspect of the test be a secret, it would be pretty pointless to have it known beforehand, since everyone would've been trying to "rescue" each other, all for selfish reasons.

Personally, Midoriya thought it was all sort of ingenious, and not just because he benefited the most from it (though that definitely didn't hurt).

Obviously, Bakugou didn't see it that way, and pretty much refused to see it any way other than his own. He could sort of begrudgingly admit the importance of rescuing being a part of hero work, but it was the sort of task he generally felt was "sidekick work". Not even Midoriya's impassioned defense or multiple examples citing otherwise could change his mind. Not that he was surprised, considering he'd been trying for literal years to try to get Kacchan to rein in his temper and failing.

So, Midoriya merely left the other boy to his own angry grumblings, as they began walking out of school. He didn't have much opportunity to talk to Bakugou once they started down the hallway anyway, since pretty much everyone they knew, and plenty that they didn't, congratulated them on the way out. Being the polite young man that his mother had raised him to be, Midoriya managed to give thanks, or at least a wave to most of them, pretty much smiling the whole time, while Kacchan only growled at them, barely acknowledging their presence at all.

Being constantly stopped sort of made the walk back out quite an arduous journey. Midoriya wasn't half as annoyed about it as Bakugou, but even he was starting to get a little tired of the well-wishers from people he didn't really know.

Perhaps sensing this, he soon ran into people he did know.

When he'd run into them-walking _together_ , he'd noted to them rather teasingly, before receiving twin blushes in response-Haruto and Yuna had both given him some warm congratulations he'd quite happily and sincerely received.

It turned out that Haruto was going to a science high school, known for its pre-med course, still in the same district, while Yuna was going to an agriculture high school out in the country. Midoriya had wanted to talk a bit more, but Bakugou had gotten annoyed enough to essentially start leaving him behind, so he'd cut the chat short, promising to talk more over emails later on.

"You know, Kacchan, the two of them are actually pretty cool once you get to know them," Izuku told him, once he caught up.

"And why the fuck would I want to do that, Deku?" Bakugou retorted, completely unimpressed.

Midoriya gave a thoughtful hum, before sweetly pointing out, "Maybe so you'll have a friend other than me?"

There was a long silence, before Kacchan exploded. "Why the fuck would I want more assholes like you?!"

The green-haired boy laughed, easily dodging the punch sent his way. Being not a complete total idiot, Midoriya had definitely started running out of range of the blonde's furious attacks. He noted that regardless of the insult, the blonde had not denied being friends with him.

"Come on, Kacchan. You know your life would be boring without me!" He called out behind him as he ran, watching his friend growl in frustration as he started running after him.

For the next few minutes, the two of them dodged and weaved their way through the students milling about in the hallways, both of them completely ignoring any calls or shouts along the way. Finally, as they turned around a corner, Midoriya just managed to slip into a crowd of people. Bakugou ran right past him, furiously growling all the while.

Once he was out of sight, Izuku finally gave into his laughter, giving great big guffaws as he away stray tears. In hindsight, that was his first mistake. The crowd quickly realized he was there at the noise he was making, at which point, they all exploded into more noise, eagerly asking him details about the entrance exam.

Midoriya flinched briefly at the sudden noise, his laughter cutting off abruptly. He wasn't really a claustrophobic person exactly, but he was definitely starting to get an itch right now, as people kept barging into his space. Finally, in desperation, he used a quick burst of wind to propel him from out of the crowd, before landing neatly outside the circle that had been growing ever closer towards him.

"Now, now, everyone," He called out placatingly, raising his arms out. "Just calm down, and I'll tell you what happened."

He could probably just cut and run right now, while he still had a sort of clear path through, but it wasn't like this crowd was actually a group of villains or anything. So long as they kept a bit of distance between them, Midoriya didn't really mind. After all, while part of him would forever be just a little shy around big crowds, he couldn't deny that he did also come to quite enjoy his popularity and the positive attention it brought.

Plus, though he wasn't really one to brag, if there was ever a bragging moment, it was this one.

At least, now that Bakugou wasn't here to witness it, he also probably wouldn't get a face full of explosion for it. Without further delay, Midoriya quickly launched into the story, dramatizing it just a little bit-not that it needed much help-and making sure to point out Ochako helping him out too, because even if no one who she was, it didn't feel right not to give her some credit too.

" _Dude, you are so badass!"_

 _"I can't believe you seriously kicked a giant robot's butt!"_

 _"_ I _can't believe a giant robot is part of UA's entrance exam! Boy, am I glad I decided not to apply."_

 _"If you had, I'm sure Midoriya here would've come to save you."_

 _"Damn Midoriya, just how many girls are you gonna 'save' and add to your harem?"_

"Wait, what?" Midoriya had been weathering the familiar storm of comments that sprung up around him after his story when that one comment reached his ears—and turned them bright pink once it sunk in.

He was definitely regretting his decision to stay and humor the crowd now. Maybe this was karma for deciding to brag and ditching Bakugou, and boy, was it working, because he was never going to do this again.

Still incredulous this was happening, he shook his head as he protested. "I-I don't have a _harem!_ "

"Yeah, of course not!" Another classmate defended him fiercely, before adding, "He's turned down every confession he's received since, like, ever, after all."

This was, strictly speaking, all true. Ever since middle school, Midoriya had somehow managed to attract many admirers who confessed their feelings towards him, usually through either in letters, more commonly, or in person, for those brave few. For all of them, the answer was a polite and apologetic _no_.

It wasn't that there was anything wrong with them-or with him, either-it was simply that he didn't really have the time and energy for a relationship right now. He was far too focused on becoming a hero like All Might. Not to mention, well, while the people who confessed might've claimed to like him a lot, he could hardly say the same back. It didn't feel right to accept feelings when he had none in return, after all.

"Dude, are you gay?" One particularly tactless student exclaimed.

"Nah, he's turned down confessions from guys too, remember?" One _even more_ tactless student clarified. "I think he's just not, like, into anything, you know?"

Midoriya had never been more thankful to have Bakugou as a friend then when he suddenly appeared, exploding at the entire crowd right then and there.

" **_JUST FUCKING SHUT UP ALREADY, YOU DAMN EXTRAS—-AND LEAVE US FUCKING ALONE!_ ** **"**

Thankfully, for all their sakes, they listened, and scattered like the wind after that. Midoriya breathed a sigh of relief once they were gone. "Thanks, Kacchan."

"Che, whatever," Bakugou replied, crossing his arms. "I didn't fucking do it for _you_. They were getting on my damn nerves too."

"Well, thanks anyway." Midoriya grinned, all too able to tell that the other blonde was just covering up for his silly pride. Slinging an arm around his shoulder companionably, he proclaimed, "Now, let's go home!"

"About damn time." He muttered grumpily, but didn't bother to shake off the arm on him.

With no more distractions, they were easily able to make it outside in no time. Soon, they were standing by the gates, and ready to travel on their usual path home, for the last time.

Giving a glance back at the Aldera Junior High school building they'd spent so much of their recent years in, Midoriya couldn't help but muse, "You know, we're probably never going to come back here again."

Bakugou only scoffed, "Good fucking riddance."

"Aww, come on Kacchan, it wasn't that bad, was it?" Midoriya asked with a slight pout.

Sure, he'd been all too happy to leave in a hurry in case any of his other (now former) classmates decided to start discussing his love life again, but that didn't mean he was ecstatic to be leaving it _forever_. He'd enjoyed his time at Aldera Junior High, after all. After getting to know some of their classmates better, like Haruto and Yuna, he was even regretting not spending a little more time in school.

"Aren't you gonna miss this place even a _little?_ "

Raising a brow, Bakugou pointed out, "Who the fuck would, when compared to UA?"

When he put that way, Midoriya could hardly disagree.

Sure, he enjoyed Aldera Junior High well enough, but it could hardly compare to the history and grandeur of UA High School. This was the alma mater of so many incredible pro heroes-including All Might himself!

Just thinking about it was enough to get him to break out into a giddy grin. Not to mention, once again, as always, since pretty much ever, they were going to be in the same class. He'd complain about it, but honestly, it was nice and even reassuring, always having a familiar (scowling) face each time. Good thing separating people from the same middle school was a rule that only applied to the entrance exams and not their actual time at school.

"I can't wait for us to be at UA," Midoriya said excitedly, as his thoughts focused on their soon to be future. "Soon, we'll be walking home together from the UA campus, can you believe it?"

He was definitely looking forward to his school experience at UA, and his fellow classmates. If Ochako was any indication, hopefully, he'd find more friends aside from the blonde too. While he still fully planned on taking full advantage of his time to train his quirk and further his dream, he'd like to be able to do it this time while also getting to make some more friends. Who knew, maybe Kacchan would be able to find some too?

….Well, probably not, but miracles were part of his quirk's work, so Midoriya couldn't help but feel some optimism anyway. Hey, maybe he could even introduce Ochako to Kacchan now? Actually, now that he was thinking about it, their quirks could probably mesh pretty well too. Bakugou had been able to use his explosions to propel himself into the air before. If he combined it with Ochako making him weightless, he'd be able to go much, much higher.

That was definitely something to think more about, he concluded. But probably not 'til a little later on. Besides, a little selfishly, he definitely wanted to have some one-on-one training time with Uraraka first. Bakugou was a lot of things, but good at sharing was not one of them, after all. Knowing the blonde, he'd end up completely monopolizing Uraraka's time to get more use out of their quirks.

"Oi, Deku, what the fuck are you thinking up now?" Bakugou's voice cut into his thoughts. "You had better not keep doing this shit once we're at UA."

Shaking his head briefly to clear his head, Midoriya protested, "Aww, Kacchan, don't be such a sourpuss. Here I was, just imagining all the fun times we're gonna have together at UA!"

"...You're a shitty fucking liar." He frowned. "I don't even fucking wanna know what goes in your head, so I'm not gonna ask."

Izuku shrugged. "It really was about you."

"I'm _really_ not fucking asking."

The green-haired boy only smiled then, a sunshine smile that only made Bakugou frown all the more, as he grumbled, "I really fucking _hate_ you."

"Love you too, Kacchan." Midoriya replied like always, never losing his smile. "I really can't wait 'til we're both at UA."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Bakugou growled out, not even bothering to protest anymore, before adding more firmly. "Just don't fucking dawdle on the way over like usual, Deku. I don't want to be wasting my damned time at UA."

"Don't worry. We won't."

-o-

 _(They definitely wouldn't. None of them would._

 _Well, maybe Mineta did. But he got better. Eventually.)_

-o-

Speaking of future classmates at UA...

 **Uraraka:** Congrats on passing the exams~! (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

 **Uraraka:** And in 1st place too! d=(´▽｀)=b

 **Midoriya:** Thank you! (*´∀`*)

 **Midoriya:** Congrats on passing 2! What class r u in?

 **Uraraka:** Class 1-A! U? (๑•̆૩•̆)

 **Midoriya:** Me too! ∑(ﾟﾛﾟ〃)

 **Uraraka:** OMG! That's awesome! Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

 **Midoriya:** Yess! We'll be classmates! (੭ु｡╹▿╹｡)੭ु⁾⁾

 **Midoriya:** I knew u'd make it! (°∀°)b

 **Uraraka:** Hehe, thnx. (๑•́ ω •̀๑)

 **Uraraka:** Tho it was bc of u too. I wouldn't have been able to help u n get those rescue pts, if u hadn't helped me first, lol. ꋧ(⋆ʾꇶʿ⋆)

 **Midoriya:** It was no prob! I wouldn't be much of a hero if i didn't help someone in need, ryt? v(°∇^*)⌒

 **Midoriya:** N like u said, u saved me too ༼ つ ▀̿_▀̿ ༽つ

 **Uraraka:** lol yeah, so basically, we both did awesome! (⁄ ⁄⁄ ▽ ⁄⁄ ⁄)

 **Midoriya:** Yupyup, we make a great combo! \\( ω )/

 **Midoriya:** like eggs and ketchup or soy sauce and mirin…

 **Uraraka:** green tea and mochi?ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ

 **Uraraka:** ….lol, y r all of our examples food, anyway? （＞Ц＜●）

 **Midoriya:** we r hungry, obv Σ_(꒪ཀ꒪」∠)_

 **Uraraka:** tru. Guess we shud go eat lunch nw? ᕙ། – ڡ – །─∈

 **Midoriya:** probs, but wAIT! before i forget-we should meet up to test out our quirks 2gether agen!

 **Midoriya:** ヽ(≧◡≦)八(o^ ^o)ノ

 **Uraraka:** rightright. When do u wanna do it?

 **Midoriya:** hmm.. (⁽͈˙̑⁾˔̉⁽˙̑⁾͈)˚º꒰꒱

 **Midoriya:** well, i'm actually free today if u r? (っಠ‿ಠ)っ

 **Uraraka:** i'm free 2! Let's do this! ٩( ᐛ )و

 **Midoriya:** Yaaaay! Meet me at Dagobah Beach!

 **Midoriya:** We can practice there! ＼＼\\(۶•̀ᴗ•́)۶/／／

 **Uraraka:** OK! See u there!


	11. The 3 UA Amigos

**A/N: This was... not supposed to be this long. But Midoriya wanted to word vomit about Uraraka's quirk, I couldn't resist sneaking some chatfic shenanigans into this main fic despite literally already starting another fic to stop these impulses, and the three of them just really wanted more interactions, lol.**

 **So, this chapter is more breather + character development. We'll get to their first day at UA and the quirk assessment by next chapter!**

 **Also, look forward to seeing Uraraka work on some of Midoriya's ideas in the future, esp for her hero costume/battle training! I've had a bunch of headcanons for how she could use her quirk to its full potential and these ideas of Izuku's are just some of them, lol.**

* * *

Once again, Midoriya found himself bouncing excitedly on the beach, waiting for a friend so they could do some quirk training together.

This all gave him a slight sense of deja vu, but the similarities pretty much ended there. Aside from the status of both being his friends, and future classmates who were going to UA, Ochako and Kacchan were different as night and day.

As immediately proven by their initial greetings.

Midoriya had been trying to expel some of his extra energy by doing some warm up exercises while waiting, when he saw a figure approaching from the street. The moment Uraraka popped into view and saw him standing by the sans, she beamed widely at him, calling out in greeting, "Good morning, Midoriya!"

It was all quite a far cry from Kacchan's usual grumbled greetings, or the times when he outright attacked him on sight, not even bothering to say 'hi' before he sent an explosive fist his way.

Finding himself grinning at the comparison (Kacchan would be pissed to learn he lost in anything, even if it was something like this), Izuku nonetheless managed to call out in reply, as he waved her over, "Morning, Uraraka! Come on over."

She heeded his call easily, heading down the steps towards the sand and reaching him in no time flat. Looking around at the mostly deserted beach, she told him, "Wow, this is such a beautiful beach! Do you always practice here?"

"Yeah, it's pretty nice now. You'd never know it used to be such a dump. Literally. Since people used to just dump their trash here." Midoriya explained with a slight shake of his head, before adding a little sheepishly. "Though the fact that it was such a dump was kind of why it was a great place to practice before."

He went on to tell the story of how he and Kacchan had essentially cleaned up the entire beach by accident through training with a combination of Hurricane Breath and Explosion, and later, with Elemental Cycle too.

"Wow, that's incredible! Your quirks are so crazy powerful!" Uraka exclaimed, shaking her head a little as she added, "I still have a hard time picturing you with a different quirk. I wish I could've seen you with Hurricane Breath."

He'd already explained what his true quirk was over their chats, but it was definitely the kind of quirk that needed to be seen to be believed. Shrugging apologetically, Midoriya replied, "Yeah, sorry. Like I said, I'd change right now, but I kinda wanna keel Elemental Cycle for a while."

Rummaging into his bag, he pulled out several notebooks, "Oh, I did bring all my notebooks on my quirk though! It's got every quirk I've ever changed into over the years!"

Taking the notebooks with a look of awe, she said, "Wow, that is a lot of quirks!"

Izuku gave a slightly sheepish laugh, "Yeah. I've gone through hundreds of them since I first changed. Some for longer than others. I've included all my observations, ideas for potential uses, and their effectiveness in battle—usually tested by a fight with Kacchan."

Uraraka flipped through one of the notebooks, skimming through all the different points Midoriya had mentioned. "These are really detailed. You really know a lot about quirks! And wow, this Kacchan sure must be amazing at fighting! I can't believe he beat you with some of these quirks you had."

"Yeah, Kacchan's like some battle beast," Midoriya laughed. "Our overall win-loss record is actually really close, but he's got the edge—and he really won't let me forget it."

"He sounds super strong! And… really competitive," Uraraka noted, before breaking out into a smile, "I can't wait to meet Kacchan too!"

Midoriya had to stifle a laugh at hearing someone else call Bakugou by the silly childhood nickname he used. He realized now that he had never actually used his friend's real name, in any of the many stories he'd told her about the boy over their chats.

He should probably correct her, before she actually ended up calling him that to his face, but, well, Izuku could never quite resist a chance to tease the other boy, and the thought of the blonde's face was enough to nearly send him to hysterics.

Ochako seemed to notice this too. "Um, are you okay?"

"S-sorry," Midoriya bit his lip briefly to get a hold of himself before replying. "Uh, just remembered something… I'm fine now."

"Okay… if you're sure, then." She replied, looking a little doubtful, but not pushing it further, which Izuku was thankful for. He wasn't sure he could stop himself from spilling the beans if she pressed. As Kacchan kept pointing out, he was a terrible liar, after all.

In his defense, as someone aiming to be a top hero like All Might, he thought being honest was an admirable quality anyway.

….though if he was really pursuing that logic, he was pretty sure what he was doing was not exactly particularly heroic behaviour either. After all, he knew full well what he was getting into when he was teasing Kacchan—-that is, a fistful of angry explosions to his face—-but Uraraka didn't. Having described the blonde as little more than an angry pomeranian with more bark than bite probably wasn't going to help at all.

But Bakugou Katsuki was the kind of guy you really had to meet in person, anyway.

So, merely shaking his head, with a far too casual shrug for the impending doom he was planning on arranging, he continued on, "Anyway, we should really have meet up for all three of us soon, before we all start at UA.

"Yeah, sure! It'll be nice to get to know each other, so it's not so scary in the new class." She replied, utterly oblivious to the fact that Bakugou was probably going to be the scariest thing in said class unless there was some kind of literal ghost haunting it.

"Next time!" Midoriya promised, before waggling his eyebrows with an eager grin. "For today, it's just going to be the two of us and our quirks, in a glorious combination of techniques together!"

Putting the notebooks in her bag for safekeeping, Uraraka raised a fist in the air, cheering eagerly in response, "Plus Ultra!"

-o-

(Plus Ultra, indeed.

The both of them had definitely gotten into UA for a reason.)

-o-

They were flying.

It was hardly the first time Midoriya had done so, having changed into quite a variety of quirks that allowed him to take to the skies over the years. But this was perhaps the first time it had ever been so easy to do so.

Once Uraraka made them both weightless, it took very little effort for him to float them up into the air with a few gusts of wind. Soon, they were high enough to touch the clouds, and the beach below began to look quite small.

Midoriya flew them around in a wide circle, going out into across the ocean, before they came back into the sands. A continuous swirl of winds continued to carry them everywhere with ease, adding the slightest of gusts to turn them right or left, whenever he pleased.

The biggest challenge was just keeping the winds constant, so he wouldn't accidentally change elements while in midair.

….Actually, as they discovered soon enough, the biggest challenge was probably Uraraka's limits on her quirk. Namely, the fact that she tended to get really nauseous when she used it on herself for long. Combined with slight vertigo and different air pressure, this made for a rather sickly result.

Well, it was a good thing they were already over the water when she threw up.

-o-

They managed to get back to shore soon thereafter, thankfully, and Uraraka looked slightly less green once Midoriya had laid her down on the sand.

"Are you okay?" He asked, with a concerned look on his face, as he gave her some space.

"Y-yeah…" Uraraka managed to reply, after a bit of dry heaving. "J-just queasy."

Midoriya winced a little in sympathy. "Ouch. It's a side effect of your quirk, right?"

There was a pitiful nod to this. "It happens if I use my quirk to much, especially if I go over my two ton weight limit, or if I use it on myself."

"Oof. That sucks," Midoriya shook his head, before he grew pensive. Thinking alout, he wondered, "How extensively have you tested the limit? How long does it usually take for nausea to settle in? Time limits like that can usually be extended through practice. How often do you use your quirk on yourself?"

"Um, I'm not really sure?" Uraraka replied uncertainly, looking a little taken aback at the barrage of questions sent her way. The questions did prove to be an effect distraction from her nausea though, as she focused on answering properly. "It takes maybe ten minutes before it gets super unbearable, and I puke. Like a while ago, basically. And, well, I don't really use my quirk on myself a lot, because of the whole nausea thing?"

Midoriya nodded, seemingly absorbing all this information, before he frowned, admonishing her lightly, though with increasing fervor as he went on, "That's no good though! You can't just ignore such an important aspect of your quirk! You won't get better by ignoring the problem."

Uraraka flinched, visibly deflating as she admitted, "I know I really need to practice it more, but it's just hard when I end up puking every time..."

Midoriya seemed to realize he was being a bit too blunt, as he gave her a smile, adding encouragingly, "Working around the drawbacks of a quirk can be quite a challenge. But just imagine what you could do if you manage to overcome it!"

Breaking out into an excited grin, he started rambling, "I mean, if you could utilize your quirk on yourself effectively, you could drastically increase your mobility, speed and reach. If you got yourself a support tool that could simulate my winds, you could fly by yourself!"

"Wow! That would be amazing!" Uraraka gushed immediately, sitting up now, and suddenly seeming much more enthusiastic about the idea of using her quirk more on herself. "Flying was really awesome. At least, during the short time before I got too nauseous!"

"Yeah! You'll be quite a powerful and formidable fighter if you can master it, and it'll be great for rescue missions too, since you'll be easily able to scout out the landscape from above."

Uraraka clapped her hands in excitement, "Oh, that would be perfect! I'd love to do rescue missions, like Thirteen!"

"The Space Hero?" Midoriya asked eagerly, to which, the girl nodded, "They're amazing, and their quirk is so cool!"

Clearly quite recovered from their nausea now, she happily replied, "Right? They're my favorite hero!"

"They're definitely one of mine too!" Izuku agreed, though he couldn't help adding, "Though my all time favorite still has to be All Might."

Uraraka smiled, "He's awesome too, of course!"

-o-

(Someday, it would be their turn to become the heroes that would inspire future generations of children.

The first time Midoriya heard a bunch of children proclaim him as their favorite hero, he'd all but melted into a puddle of disbelief, joy, and embarrassment. He may or may not have even cried a little, as he found himself overwhelmed with sheer emotion.

Kacchan had teased him to high heaven for it, but Izuku knew that even he had been all too pleased the first time a kid had proclaimed him as his favorite hero.)

-o-

Both of them were feeling quite fired up for training again, now that they were reminded of their respective inspirations.

They spent the rest of the morning switching between theorizing about potential uses for their quirks, and training their quirks.

They took to the air a few more times, and when Uraraka needed a break, Midoriya flew her back down to the beach, before continuing practicing on his own for a bit. Though she had a hard time using her quirk on herself, Uraraka could easily keep up the effects on him after all, so Midoriya was able to easily practice using his different elements while weightless even when she had to take a break.

When even he got tired and had to rest his body for a while, his brain continued to whirl with various ideas and theories about Uraraka's Zero Gravity quirk.

"Hmm.. it's interesting that using your quirk on yourself seems to take a lot more effort than on others. It's not a people versus objects thing since you've used it on me just fine. It's not the weight limit either since you obviously weigh far less than your two ton limit." Midoriya once again thought aloud, before he concluded, "So.. perhaps the nausea is simply an effect of the weightless sensation combined with the strain from using your quirk? By essentially accelerating motion sickness in you?"

"Ohh, I've never thought of it that way." Uraraka exclaimed in awe. "But that makes so much sense! Now that I think about it, I guess the feeling is really similar to the feeling of getting carsick or the dizziness from being too high up."

"I've suffered a lot of vertigo and motion sickness as side effects from some of my quirks in the past. I've learned it happens when with pretty much any mental quirk while moving." Midoriya explained, looking a little sick himself just from the memory of it.

"Really? What was that like? How did you get over it?" Uraraka fired out in quick succession, eyes alight with curiosity. "What kind of quirks did you get? Did you ever get one like mine?"

"It was pretty awful. It's something that takes a lot of practice to get used to. Most of the time, I didn't really use the quirk enough to get to that point. But I've found that the sensation is pretty similar across a lot of quirks, so I did end up sort of getting used to it eventually?" Izuku spoke thoughtfully, lost in the memory, before looking apologetic as he added, "There wasn't really any quick or specific solution aside from that. Though I've found stuff like scented oils or menthol rubs to help the way they would with regular nausea. I did also try using over the counter medications for regular nausea but they were only mildly effective at the typical dosage, and I didn't want to overdo them."

"Hmm, I see, I guess I could try some of those too. I've heard there are lots of cheap and natural solutions to stuff like that, right?" Uraraka wondered.

"I think so, yeah. I could try searching more tonight. It's sort of been a while since the last mental quirk I had long enough for it to affect me." He offered with a smile, which Uraraka returned gratefully.

"Speaking of quirks… well, I've had a lot of them. I've had a Telepathy quirk once, that let me hear the thoughts of everyone around me in a certain radius, which gave me terrible headaches from the information overload, and I had terrible spatial awareness on top of the nausea when I tried to move because of the sensory overload too. That one was probably the worst." Midoriya recalled the experience with a shudder. "I've had a Metal Detector quirk that let me sense all the metal also in a certain radius. This one wasn't so bad since I was pretty used to handling mental quirks by then, and also because it wasn't quite as much of a sensory or info overload."

"Wow, you've really changed into a lot of different quirks, haven't you?" Uraraka's eyed were wide as saucers throughout Midoriya's story. "I can't even imagine what that must be like. I mean, I've definitely had days when I thought 'I wish I had a different quirk', especially when I'm throwing up because of it. But you could actually just make that happen!"

Midoriya shrugged, a wry grin on his face. "Well, yeah. I've definitely changed quite a few times during moments where I just couldn't handle the drawbacks of a certain quirl. Actually, that's why I tend not to stick to mutation quirks for long, since they're just really hard to get used to if you're not born with them already. There's a lot of body dysmorphia going on."

Before the conversation could get too serious, he remembered, adding, "Oh, and I have gotten sort of similar quirks? I've had Weight Switch, which, obviously, let me switch the weight of objects around just by touching them in succession. So I could sort of use it like your Zero Gravity, by switching light objects with heavy objects."

"Aww, that sounds pretty cool too! I wish I could've seen it." Uraraka pouted. "It would've been really fun to compare our two quirks with each other then!"

"Yeah, it'd would've been interesting to see what would've happened if we combined our quirks too. Would the effects stack or cancel each other out?" Midoriya had his thinking face on as he pondered the likelihood of each, before he got distracted with a new thought. "Oh, actually, maybe something like I did with that quirk could for you too? I always used to carry around a stack of pennies then, to use as the lightweight object I'd switch with. Obviously, you wouldn't need to use them for that, but maybe you could use it for something else."

"What do you mean?" Uraraka frowned, looking quite confused by the sudden suggestion. "What would I use pennies for exactly?"

"Sorry, it probably shouldn't be pennies for you. I was just thinking, since your quirk is touch-activated, you'll obviously be effective as a close range fighter, where you can simply touch your opponents or their weapons to neutralize them. But I've been thinking up possibilities for some long-range fighting too. Have you ever tried throwing something you've made weightless before? Because in theory, that stone should be going much much farther with far less effort thanks to the effects of gravity being voided."

Now that Midoriya laid it out like that, Uraraka was starting to see where he was going. She recalled quickly, "I've accidentally activated my quirk while playing with a frisbee, and the ball basically never made it back down." With a growing smile, she concluded, "So, if I bring something like that frisbee around with me, I can use it as a throwing weapon!"

"Yup, exactly! You should definitely consider adding some kind of small, hard objects to use as projectile weapons, to your support equipment" Midoriya suggested excitedly, adding, "Also, for maximum effectiveness, you could release your quirk's effects on the projectile just before impact to really hurt the target."

"That would take a lot of practice to get just right," Uraraka mused, a fire of determination growing in her eyes, "But it would be really powerful once I get the hang of it! And since the projectiles would be pretty small, I wouldn't be straining my quirk much by using them either!"

As the two of them quickly bounced more ideas against each other, time seemed to pass by even faster. Before they knew it, the sun was shining high above them, and it was time for lunch, as their growling stomachs were quick to remind them. Though Midoriya suggested getting something together, Uraraka apologetically declined, saying she had already made plans with her parents beforehand and had to go.

So, they parted soon after, though not before they made plans to meet up again next week, this time with Kacchan in tow.

-o-

Midoriya: Hey, meet me at the beach 4 sum training 2mrw p(*＾-＾*)q

Bakugou: Fine

Bakugou: You have some new moves or something?

Midoriya: Great! N nope! (n˘v˘•)¬

Midoriya: I've got someone for u to meet! ⊂(・▽・⊂)

Bakugou: What the fuck?

Midoriya: It's the girl from the entrance exams! (✿´ ꒳ ` )

Bakugou: Why the fuck are you introducing me to your girlfriend?

Midoriya: …..

Midoriya: She's not my girlfriend. ( ﾟДﾟ)＜!

Midoriya: She is a friend n our future classmate UA ヽ(*ﾟ｀∀´ﾟ)乂(´ﾟ∀ﾟ｀*)ﾉ

Midoriya: So ur gonna be meeting her anyway (￣ω￣)

Bakugou: If I'm fucking meeting her then anyway, why the fuck should I bother now?

Midoriya: Cuz her quirk makes things weightless n if she combines it wit ur quirk

Midoriya: u can basically fly ＼\ ٩( ᐛ )و /／

Bakugou: ….

Bakugou: I'll be there at 9

-o-

Despite his initial reluctance, Bakugou was actually the first to arrive at Dagobah beach, though only by a couple of minutes. Midoriya was soon next, and he'd barely gotten a greeting out, which was returned by a grunted hello back, when Uraraka arrived too.

With his usual tact and charm, Kacchan started off the meeting by raising a brow at the new girl and bluntly asking, "So, Round Face, you've got the gravity quirk then?"

"R-round face?!" Ochako cried out in startled indignation.

"Kacchan, that's Uraraka," Midoriya reminded with a long-suffering sigh. "I've told you all about her, remember?"

"Whatever." Bakugou merely rolled his eyes. "Who the fuck gives a shit about crap like that?"

"Pretty much everyone except you, basically." The green-haired boy countered with a shake of his head. "I don't know why I keep being surprised by how rude you are, really."

"You really are quite rude, Kacchan." Uraraka agreed with a slight frown.

"..."

There was a long moment of silence, as Bakugou slowly registered what she'd called him. In the meantime, Midoriya was trying very hard not to burst out into laughter.

He may or may not have conveniently forgotten to mention his childhood friend's real name all this time to Uraraka. In his defense, the habit had been so ingrained in him, he hadn't even truly realized he'd been doing it so consistently.

"What the fuck did you just call me?" Kacchan demanded in a low, dangerous tone.

Seemingly oblivious to the impending explosion, Uraraka only tilted her head in innocent confusion, "Isn't that your name? It's what Midoriya-kun has been calling you all this time."

At this, the blonde's dangerous attention quickly shifted to him, as he growled threateningly. His hands were starting to light up with warning sparks. "Deku!"

Thankfully for his chances of survival, he had managed to stifle his laughter by now, though he couldn't quite contain the slight twitch of his lips, as he raised his hands in apology, "Sorry, sorry! I didn't realize I only ever used your nickname and never your real one."

Quickly turning to Uraraka, he gave a sheepish smile as he finally formally introduced the other boy, "This is Bakugou Katsuki. He prefers to be called Bakugou."

"Oh, I see," Uraraka said slowly, looking very much like she didn't actually understand the see at all. Still, she regained her good spirits quickly thereafter. "It's sweet of you to have a nickname for him then! Is Deku his nickname for you? It's cute!"

After carefully eying Bakugou, who still seemed pissed off, but wasn't actually trying to attack him, seemingly restraining himself with the reminder of what they were actually supposed to do today. Midoriya doubted it would last though, and this more akin to the calm before the storm, more than anything.

Well, it was nothing he hadn't been through before.

So, he easily smiled at Ochako, giving a slightly sardonic laugh as he explained, "Yup! It's Kacchan's childhood nickname for me. He thought it was just hilarious, when it turned out you could read the characters for my name as the word for useless too."

Of course, at that point, he'd done so because he thought he was quirkless, and then, because he had a "useless" quirk.

Even when it turned out to be the exact opposite, even after the two had become friends again, the name had stuck. Half in revenge and half out of habit, Midoriya never stopped calling the blonde by his cutesy childhood nickname either.

"And it's fucking hilarious, yeah." Bakugou defended, before giving a quick and frankly villainous sounding laugh. "See, Deku?"

"...this is exactly why people call you a villain, Kacchan." Midoriya merely said with another shake of his head.

An eye for an eye, a terrible nickname for a terrible nickname, he supposed. In the end they both hated the names they gave one another, so it sort of evened out. Besides, by now, they were both so used to it, he wasn't sure they'd even respond if they ever called each other by anything else.

"Oh. But I still think it sounds pretty cute?" Uraraka frowned at the explanation for a moment, before shifting in her usual cheerful self as she added. "It sounds like 'Dekiru' to me. Like you can do it! You know?"

Izuku blinked in surprise. He'd never heard it quite like that before. "Huh. I guess it does sound like it, now that you mention it."

Sure, Bakugou didn't mean it like a real insult these days, not anymore, but that didn't erase its history, or what it meant. But this? This was something he could happily instead of just resignedly accept.

With a warm smile, he told her, "Well, I don't mind if you call me Deku, Uraraka-chan. Especially if you think of it like that." Giving a side eye to Bakugou, he added, "I mean, I'm pretty used to it now anyway."

"Okay then, Deku!" Uraraka agreed eagerly.

It was a truly beautiful and heartwarming moment.

So, of course Kacchan had to go and ruin it.

Rolling his eyes with exaggerated impatience, he growled out, "Ugh, if you two fucking lovebirds are done flirting now, I'd like to get to the fucking training I was promised today!"

"We're not flirting!" Midoriya corrected indignantly. "It's called being friendly, Kacchan. Maybe you'd like to try it out too?"

"It's called being a waste of fucking time." Bakugou replied dismissively. "Now, are we going to fucking start? Because I am leaving you two losers, if not."

Midoriya shot Uraraka a look of long-suffering amusement at this threat, but nonetheless complied with the blonde's request, "Yeah, yeah. We're starting! Uraraka-chan, could you hit us both with your quirk?"

-o-

Not even Kacchan could keep up his usual expression of anger in the face of the sheer awesome of flying high in the sky. Indeed, he wore a look of sheer childlike joy on his face as he soared through the clouds, the explosions from his fists easily propelling his weightless body forward.

Of course, on Bakugou's face, sheer childlike joy tended to translate to looking like a demon high on torturing his victims, which made Uraraka flinch back and nearly release her quirk's hold on him when she saw it. But, hey, at least Midoriya knew him well enough to tell he was the happiest he'd been since he thought he'd aced the UA entrance exams.

-o-

Tired, sweaty, and grinning wildly, Bakugou told Uraraka, "You know what, Round Face, maybe you aren't a completely useless extra, after all."

"Uhh, t-thank you?" She replied uncertainly, through heaving gasps of breath.

The Zero Gravity user was lying on the sand, trying to overcome the nausea from using her quirk on herself again. Though she'd been starting to practice more, it was pretty slow going, trying to get used to it. But it was working, she thought. It took a little less time to recover each time too. Indeed, once she felt a bit better, she even had enough energy to tell Bakugou, "My name still isn't Round Face though!"

The blonde was clearly in a good mood, because he didn't explode or growl or really look angry at all. Instead, he merely rolled his eyes and spoke, "Fine, Gravity Girl. You fucking happy now?"

"...I guess that's sort of better? Uraraka seemed to realize this was the best she was going to get, but she clearly wasn't afraid to push it either, as she calmly added, with a sweet smile that was at odds with the devious glint in her eyes, "You're not too bad yourself, Kacchan."

"The fuck did you call me?" Bakugou growled, though with only half of his previous fire. Either he was tired, or he realized he couldn't antagonize the girl who allowed him to fly too much.

"See, Kacchan? I told you it's a great nickname!" Midoriya exclaimed, a similarly angelic grin on his face, that wouldn't have fooled a toddler, let alone the boy who'd known him since they were both toddlers.

"You are such a shitty fucking liar, Deku!" Bakugou did not hesitate to attack Midoriya, who easily avoided the punch he'd known was coming with a laugh.

Having already expended quite a lot of energy from their training and sparring before, neither of them really fought all that hard now. Midoriya didn't even bother to activate his quirk at all, and simply continued to dodge the blonde's attacks.

"Come on, Kacchan!" He called out, after avoiding a kick. "You know you like it!"

"I hate the shitty nickname you came up with, dumbass!" Bakugou shot back, shaking his head in exasperated disgust. "Ugh, I can't believe there are two of you fucking assholes now!"

"You mean two friends?" Midoriya countered, only being half-sarcastic about the point. Uraraka wasn't actually the first person who'd tried to call Bakugou by Izuku's nickname for him. However, she was almost certainly the first who'd managed to survive doing so mostly unscathed. Sure, that was almost entirely because the blonde still wanted her to use Zero Gravity on him next time, but it was way more than most people had managed.

"Well, Midoriya's my friend, so I guess you're my friend too." Uraraka corrected with a shrug.

Glaring at them, Bakugou announced, "Well, I fucking hate the both of you."

"Don't worry, Uraraka-chan, that's just Kacchan for 'I like and appreciate your friendship'" Midoriya interpreted with a smile, before instinctively dodging the explosion sent his way.

-o-

Midoriya Izuku added Bakugou Katsuki and Uraraka Ochako to a group chat

Midoriya: ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡

Uraraka: Hi! ヾ(´∀｀○)ﾉ

Bakugou: What the fuck is this?

Midoriya: A group chat! (❀◕∇◕)爻(◕∇◕❀)

Bakugou: I can fucking see that, dumbass.

Bakugou: Why?

Midoriya changed the chat name to UA 3 Amigos

Midoriya: cuz we r the 3 amigos obv! ＼( ^o)( ^ 0 ^ )(o^ )／

Uraraka: dat's such a cute name! ٩̋(๑˃́ꇴ˂̀๑)

Midoriya: (灬ºωº灬)

Bakugou: That is a terrible fucking name

Midoriya: ｡･ﾟ(ﾟ⊃ω⊂ﾟ)ﾟ･｡

Bakugou Katsuki has left the chat.

Midoriya Izuku has added Bakugou Katsuki to the chat.

Midoriya: do nt resist kacchan! There is no escape from the might of the groupchat! ﾍ(ﾟ∇ﾟﾍ)

Bakugou: I fucking hate you

Midoriya: love u too! ( Ő‿Ő)爻(Ő‿Ő )

Uraraka: is this hw it's gonna b every time? L(・o・)」

Midoriya: probably (￣ω￣)

Bakugou: Unfortunately

-o-

(It was worse, really, to Bakugou's everlasting horror, and it only got even more chaotic once they got to UA, as they added a bunch of their other crazy classmates into the mix.)

-o-

Even more unfortunately, their schedules didn't quite sync up enough to allow the three of them to meet up again after that, but it didn't really matter too much, because they still had their totally epic group chat (Midoriya's exact words).

Besides, all too soon, spring had arrived, and it was time for the three of them to start school at UA.


	12. The Quirk Apprehension Test

**A/N: More plot incoming! Quite obviously, more changes incoming! I worry I may have lingered a bit too long on the test itself and describing each event in detail, but it was fun coming up with ways for Midoriya to use his quirk for each one, and for him to observe some of his classmates doing the same.**

 **-**

 **This one's pretty long (longest yet even) bc I tried to cram a lot into it, and make sure the next chapter will be All Might's first class aka Battle Trials!**

* * *

Once again, Midoroya and Bakugou were walking towards the famous UA building. This time, however, they were going in not as mere test takers, but as new first year students.

Though there had been some talk of meeting Uraraka and coming in with her, Bakugou had been quick to shut it down. He hadn't even really wanted to wait for Izuku (in fact, he threatened to ditch him several times, if he dawdled even a single second), let alone Uraraka, who lived far away from them.

Ochako claimed it was alright, and that she'd just meet with them at school, but Midoriya hoped they could manage to make it work somehow next time. If Kacchan really wasn't willing, he supposed he could just go meet her alone, though that was more of a last resort plan, since he's prefer to have "3 UA Amigos" all together.

In any case, that was a task best left to future Izuku. Present Izuku was too busy being impressed by the unique architectural features of UA's main building.

"Woah, this door is huge!" Midoriya exclaimed immediately. "I guess they really make it accessible to everyone, huh? Though it still isn't large enough for someone like Mt. Lady in her giant form, so maybe not…"

"She wouldn't fit inside the damned building at all if she was in that form, dumbass." Bakugou rolled his eyes.

"Rude. She was just an example, Kacchan," Midoriya corrected with a long-suffering sigh. "Anyway, I suppose we should go in now."

"I was going to fucking do that, until you started rambling about fucking door sizes." Kacchan said pointedly, as he opened the door in question.

Midoriya didn't get a chance to reply (which was truly a shame because he's had quite the comeback prepared), since he was immediately approached by one of their new classmates—specifically, by a very familiar face with glasses, who was looking much less disapproving than last time, but no less serious .

"Ah, I'm from Somei Private Academy!" He proclaimed as soon as he was in front of Izuku, extending his hand as he introduced himself with a bow. "My name is Iida Tenya."

"Oh, uh, I'm from Aldera Junior High," Midoriya responded, taking the offered hand with a shake. "I'm Midoriya Izuku."

"Midoriya-san, you perceived the true nature of that exam, and I…. did not. I misjudged you! Your performance during the practical was impressive! I hate to admit it, but… you were the superior candidate."

"Right, thanks." Izuku answered reflexively, before he realized he should probably clarify. "But you're wrong. I didn't see through the test's true nature—though admittedly it makes sense in hindsight—all I did was act on my instincts, and save someone I saw in need of my help."

"I… see." Iida frowned, looking quite taken. "That is… not what I expected."

He'd taken a breath and seemed quite ready to say more, when Kacchan seemed to have enough of being ignored.

"Oi oi, I'm right fucking here too, you damn extra!" Kacchan immediately cut in, with a displeased frown.

"Yes, I can see you, and you are being very rude right now, as I was talking to Midoriya-san here," Iida scolded bluntly. "It seems I have not misjudged you."

"What did you say, you damned elitist prick!?" Kacchan exploded, looking quite ready to pick a fight on their very first day of school.

Actually, seeing as their homeroom teacher was nowhere to be found, technically the day had not even officially started yet. Truly, it seemed the blonde was aiming to surpass all of his old middle school records indeed.

"Kacchan, please calm down," Midoriya attempted to diffuse the situation brewing between the two. "You don't want to get in trouble on the first day."

"This motherfucker started it!" Bakugou exclaimed.

"That is untrue! And such foul language!" Iida protested immediately, making Midoriya sigh, as he realized the other boy was clearly going to keep this going too.

Shaking his head, he informed him, "Iida-san, the language is a lost cause. I've been trying to get Kacchan to stop swearing since we were literally toddlers."

Before Iida could even attempt to reply to this, or Bakugou could blow up in anger again, the door opened again, and Ochako stepped in. Once she saw them, completely heedless of the tension clearly emanating from both Bakugou and Iida, she immediately smiled, greeting cheerfully, "Morning, Deku!"

Turning to Bakugou, and utterly unphased by his glare, she also greeted him, "Morning, Kacchan!"

"Oi, Gravity Girl, how many fucking times do I have to fucking tell you—-the name is BAKUGOU, not fucking Kacchan!" If looks could kill, Uraraka would be dead where she stood right now.

Merely shrugging, Ochako pointed out, "Well, my name isn't Gravity Girl, either, but I've stopped complaining about that."

"My nickname isn't completely fucking stupid," Bakugou retorted, giving the boy who gave him the nickname a steely glare.

Midoriya pouted, "Kacchan is a great nickname! You just have terrible taste."

The blonde's anger was now fully on him thanks to that comment, but before another fight could break out, a voice cut through the chatter immediately.

"If you're all here to socialize, get out."

-o-

It turned out that their homeroom teacher was in the classroom all along.

Also, he was a caterpillar.

….Well, yeah, no. But he was definitely kind of a weirdo, and it wouldn't really have surprised Midoriya if it were true at this point.

In any case, Aizawa-sensei was clearly the strict no-nonsense type of teacher, as he very quickly had them all changing to their PE uniforms and going outside for what was basically a pop quiz of sorts on their first day.

Plus Ultra, indeed, Midoriya thought.

-o-

Kacchan was chosen to be the guinea pig for Aizawa-sensei's demonstration, and he managed to throw an incredibly impressive 764.5 meters once he used his explosion quirk on his ball throw. Everyone in the class exploded into various cheers and mutters at that.

Giving an impressed whistle, Midoriya raised his hand for a high-five, which the blonde returned with a cocky grin. "Hmph, beat that, Deku!"

With Elemental Cycle still as his quirk, Izuku was actually feeling fairly confident about his chances for that. So, giving a confident grin of his own, he stated, "Just don't be a sore loser when I do, Kacchan!"

Unfortunately, that would have to wait, because despite being part of the demonstration, their actual test would not be starting with the ball throw. Oh well, there was little doubt that Bakugou would find some way for them to compete scores in all of them anyway. Though not quite as obsessed with winning, Izuku was hardly going to just give first place to the other boy without a fight either.

Alas, in many cases, neither of them even came close to reaching first.

-o-

50-Meter Dash

Unsurprisingly, thanks to his quirk, Iida was incredibly fast, and managed to easily take the top spot with an impressive time of only 3.04 seconds.

Though his quirk wasn't obviously geared for it, Bakugou was able to make it in only 3.78 seconds by using his explosive hands to propel himself forward. It was a technique he frequently used in fights to give himself some extra speed and mobility, so he was well-versed it pushing it to the limits. Too bad it wasn't quite enough.

Poor Uraraka's quirk wasn't really the most help with this, at least, without any support equipment. If she managed to get some kind of propulsion, she could easily zoom to first place by using her quirk on herself. Unfortunately, she had none, and Midoriya wasn't really allowed to help. So, instead of making herself weightless, she merely lightened her clothes to try to minimize resistance as she ran, resulting in a fairly average 6.85 seconds. It was faster than middle school at least. Her training, especially after meeting with Midoriya and Bakugou, had paid off.

Much like Iida, this test was also quite optimal for Midoriya's current quirk, and he was easily able to zoom across the finish line by utilizing his strongest winds to propel himself forward, much like Kacchan with his explosions. This did result in some blowback that sent quite a few leaves flying off the nearby trees and creating many a messy mane for the poor students who'd been too close to him.

A little too much power, perhaps, but he managed to get 3.12 seconds out of it. This was still a bit behind Iida unfortunately, though it was close. Midoriya wasn't too surprised or disappointed though, since the other boy had much more experience using his quirk to its fullest extent.

Besides, he still managed to beat Kacchan, who was frowning harshly at him. He sent a wide grin and a waggle of his brows in response. The blonde merely scoffed, "Wait 'til the next one before you fucking celebrate your win, Deku!"

-o-

Grip Strength

The clear winner of this event was a girl who was literally able to create a clamp that all but broke the machine. Midoriya could already hear Kacchan calling her a cheater in his head. A boy with multiple arms was able to reach an impressive second place with his grip alone though, managing 540.0 kg like it was nothing.

Bakugou was clearly frustrated at not being able to reach even a fraction of these ridiculous results, especially as his quirk was no help unless he just wanted to literally break the machine, which probably wouldn't improve his score at all and just get him expelled for breaking school property. He got a result of 71.0 kg, which was impressive for normal human limits already.

Unlike the previous task, his quirk wasn't quite as obviously applicable. Midoriya brainstormed for a few moments, wondering if any of the elements under his control could help increase his grip strength. Flame was no go obviously, and water seemed similarly unhelpful, though perhaps he could at least use it to control any possible sweat that would make him lose his grip on the device. Perhaps he could use some winds as an extraneous force that could push on his hands to make them grip tighter?

Wait, actually, earth might be better for that. Recalling the boy with multiple limbs and remembering his own previous Extra Limb quirk, he realized he could do something similar using earth.

With a confident grin, he summoned up some mounds of earth and molded them into a giant earth glove which he slipped his hand into, before using the remaining earth to create more floating gloves that gripped onto his actual hand to increase the overall strength.

In the end, he managed an impressive 273.0kg result. Not anywhere close to the boy with many limbs, but higher (by quite a bit too) than Kacchan's score, once again. Something the blonde realized too, if the grinding of his teeth proved anything. Midoriya gave him a sunny smile in response.

-o-

Standing Long Jump

There was a sandbox set up for this event.

Once again, Bakugou used his explosions to easily clear the whole length of the sandbox, landing some distance away. Iida's quirk wasn't quite so helpful in this instance, but it did give him a nice burst of speed for his initial jump and allowed him to also jump a fair distance, if not enough to clear the sandbox entirely.

A boy with a laser from his navel was once again able to use his quirk to easily cheat the exercise, though unlike his attempt during the 50-meter dash, this one was more effective. Since the focus here was distance and not speed, Uraraka was able to use her quirk on herself, and slowly float across the distance of the sandbox, releasing only once she was some distance away. He gave her a thumbs up she returned with a slightly queasy smile.

Like the 50-meter dash, this event was pretty much made for him. He was easily able to sail across the entire length of the sandbox with his winds, though only after quickly clearing through his water (this one doubled to helpfully give himself something to drink too) and fire (this one, he just gave a small flame he quickly extinguished to move on faster). Midoriya wasn't entirely sure if he actually landed much further than Bakugou since once they clear the sandbox, they stopped recording, but the blonde was sure acting angry enough for it to be true.

Then again, it was pretty much his default expression anyway. Sometimes, even he found it kind of hard to tell.

-o-

Repeated Side Steps

The most notable quirk usage for this task was perhaps this one boy that had managed to create to giant purple balls which he used to quickly bounce between. It was an interesting use of an interesting quirk, Midoriya mused, though he doubted someone with a flashy offensive quirk like Kacchan would agree. Or perhaps he did, since he was attempted something similar, by sending blasts of explosions from his hands with every step to try to increase his speed. It was sort of working but not as well as he probably hoped, as it only gave him a tiny boost in speed while using up more energy than usual.

Midoriya's own attempt was even less successful. He probably should've known better after seeing Kacchan's try, but he didn't have any other ideas of using his quirk that seemed more helpful, so he decided the gamble was worth it. To side step faster, he kept up a steady stream of strong blasts of wind coming from each hand to help propel him. It was harder than he thought to keep up consistently though, as he had trouble controlling the proper amount of power and often ended up making the winds too strong and sending himself nearly tumbling down several times in the process.

At one point, he'd had to throw up a soft earth wall to keep him from flying too far off course. He'd saved himself but restarted the elemental cycle, so he'd had to do the rest of the set with no more use of his quirk-not that this was such a bad thing. In the end, he'd probably have ended up doing better if he'd simply chosen to use no quirk at all from the start.

At least someone was happy about it, he thought with a roll of his eyes, as he saw Kacchan smirking victoriously at him.

-o-

Ball Throw

While the one girl who could create anything had created a literal cannon she shot the ball out of had managed to rival Kacchan's impressive demonstration earlier, Uraraka was the definite first place for this one, as Zero Gravity literally just sent the ball flying out essentially forever, until she chose to release her quirk or got too tired to keep it up. Aizawa-sensei had simply given in and recorded it as "infinity", but Izuku was intrigued now. What was Uraraka's actual limit for a ball throw, assuming time was a non-factor? Actually, that posed an interesting question, as he wondered, if she fell asleep, would it shut off automatically?

Not even Uraraka herself knew the answer to Midoriya's suddenly burning questions. "Uhh, we could test it out next time, I guess?" She suggested, to which the green-haired boy immediately began nodding, his eyes sparkling excitedly.

Bakugou shook his head, a rare look of pity in his eyes. "You shouldn't have said that, Gravity Girl. You're going to be stuck in an endless loop of experimentation now." His eyes had the look of a man with personal experience too, as he seemed to recall horrible days that made him shudder. Not even he could go up against Izuku when he was on a quest for quirk science.

"But it was worth it, wasn't it?" Midoriya countered with a grin, eyes bright and blinding as the sun. "You managed to improve your use of Explosion thanks to it!"

"Sometimes, I wonder…" Bakugou muttered.

"Hey, you three! Unless you'd all liked to marked as failures and expelled, I'd focus on the test still going on." Aizawa-sensei cut into their chatter once more. "There's no room for distractions for a hero at work."

Seeing as none of them wanted that to happen, they pretty quickly went their separate ways.

"Sorry, Aizawa-sensei!" Midoriya apologized, having come down from the high of quirk analysis now. Hoping to redeem himself somewhat, he quickly stepped up to the plate for his turn at the ball throw. The earth beneath his feet rose up under his command, taking him high, high above the grounds, until the entire school was small and faraway, and he could feel the strain of manipulating the earth. Then, he used jets of water to send himself higher, followed by a blaze of fire similar to Kacchan's explosions.

Finally, at the very peak of this, high above the clouds where he could feel the oxygen thinning, he threw the ball, aided by the strongest of winds he conjure.

Very quickly, it flew farther than his eye could see, until he had no idea where it had gone or how fast it was still going. Objective complete, he quickly utilized the same winds, he slowly floated down to his earthen perch, before switching to manipulate the earth to bring him back down like an elevator.

In the end, his throw had garnered him 955.7 meters for his efforts, the second best results after Uraraka's impossible to defeat score of infinity. Midoriya landed back down to a bunch of cheers from his classmates, a high-five from Uraraka and an angry glare from Kacchan. Aizawa-sensei's expression was inscrutable, however, which made MIdoriya rather nervous. Maybe this hadn't been the right way to redeem himself after accidentally making a fuss, after all.

-o-

Distance Run

This was pretty comparable to the 50-meter dash, though this time, endurance was a much greater factor. The boy with the navel laser definitely wasn't doing so hot, or rather, he'd likely gotten too hot, from using his quirk so much. By the end, he'd resigned to rather slowly jogging the remaining distance left while hugging his midsection and looking slightly less sparkly. Iida still managed to easily clear the task thanks to his quirk, while looking only a little tired for it too.

Though first in sheer creativity with the task once again belonged to the girl who seemed to be able to create just about anything with her quirk. This time, she produced a literal bicycle that she used to "run" the course. That seemed sort of like cheating, but then again, that was the whole point of this exercise, so she was doing pretty incredible.

Like the 50-meter dash, he was easily able to use his winds to soar through the course, once more beating out Kacchan, as he had a much harder time keeping up his explosions constantly and needed to stop now and then, unlike him.

Paying more attention to Aizawa-sensei's reaction this time, he noticed him eying everyone with the same unreadable expression. Honestly, it was hard to read any emotion on the man's face except from general tiredness and annoyance with all of them. Midoriya wasn't sure what to make of him.

-o-

Seated toe-touch & Sit-ups

For the seated toe touch, especially considering the results of the side step, Midoriya decided not to use his quirk at all. While he supposed he could perhaps use his wind or earth in a similar way to the grip test or the side steps, he wasn't all that great at fine control, and he didn't want to risk pulling a muscle or something because he ended up using too much force. He was decently flexible on his own anyway, so he didn't really need much help. Everyone else seemed to have similar ideas, because there wasn't much quirk usage that he could see for this task.

The sit-ups seemed similarly risky, so Midoriya similarly forewent his quirk's help with this one too. Besides after using Elemental Cycle, especially his winds, so much during this exam, he was beginning to feel pretty tired and needed a break anyway.

This was the last of the tests, so the results would also soon be out. Aizawa-sensei's threat of expelling the lowest ranking student, and harsh reminded that they were not here to have fun rang in his head. Midoriya wasn't worried about ranking low, obviously, but he couldn't help but worry about the person who would. Surely he wouldn't really expel a student just like this?

This exam had been an interesting way to gauge how people could use their quirks to improve their overall fitness level, such as most physical quirk-users, or how creatively one could use these same quirks to essentially cheat a situation to their benefit, like the girl who could create just about anything. But there were plenty of others with quirks they had no way of actually helpfully applying to this test, like the girl whose quirk made her invisible.

Midoriya had been incredibly lucky to change to a quirk like Elemental Cycle, which allowed him to simply easy breeze (pun not intended) through most of the tests, and he knew it. He could've just as easily gotten a quirk that was "useless" for this. While he could've simply changed his quirk in the hopes of getting one that finally would've worked, no one else had this ability.

It was, put simply, unfair.

-o-

(But he'd learned long ago, when he was just four years old, how life was unfair.

Quirks were not created equal, so men were not created equal either.)

-o-

The final results were in, after that. Aizawa-sensei had been quick to tally it all up and present the results to all of them. They were all ranked for their overall performance, and everyone's eyes quickly skimmed over to the names he'd posted.

Yaoyorozu Momo was first. Midoriya assumed this was the girl who could create seemingly anything out of her body, judging by his own tally of their attempts, and the small pleased smile on her face.

Despite his internal worries and speculations, he felt a smile of his own grow as he saw his own name in second place. It wasn't first place, as Kacchan would likely grouch, but it was definitely an impressive showing, especially considering the people who came in next.

Todoroki Shouto was third place. Midoriya assumed it was the quiet boy with unique two-toned hair and eyes, who was a powerful elemental-type quirk user, from what he'd seen in the tests, as he raised his head and frowned when his name was called. The competitive type, like Kacchan, he surmised, to be displeased at a third place ranking. Though displeased didn't seem quite right. Like Aizawa-sensei, his expression was hard to read. He was cold as the ice he expertly wielded.

Most relevantly, however, Kacchan was in fourth place. The blonde had done quite well in most of the tests, even without use of his quirk, and his score was actually fairly close to Todoroki's according to Midoriya's own tally so far, but obviously, the blonde was not the type to be satisfied with just that.

Midoriya had just enough time to note that Uraraka was right in the middle at tenth place, when Kacchan came flying angrily at him, palms sparking. "Damn you, Deku!"

Well used to his friend's reactions, he simply dodged the incoming attack, saying with an utterly fearless smile, "Aww, come on now, Kacchan, didn't you promise not to be a sore loser?"

"Fuck you!" Bakugou screamed, getting ready to rush at him again. Midoriya readied his winds to fly out of his attack's range, when the both of them were suddenly stopped in their tracks. Cloth had wrapped around them and trapped them in an instant.

But more significantly, considering cloth would've trapped neither of them for long considering their quirks, neither of their quirks were working either. Both of them turned to see Aizawa-sensei's eyes glowing, and the cloth coming from the scarf around his neck.

"It's my special "capturing weapon", a steel wire allow woven with carbon nanofibers," the man explained with regards to the scarf holding them in place. "Now stop making me use my quirk so much! I've got dry eye, damnit!"

The pieces quickly slid into place, and clearly unhindered by the capture weapon trapping him, Midoriya exclaimed excitedly, "You're Eraserhead, the underground hero!"

Bakugou rolled his eyes. "Save your damned fanboying for later, Deku."

Aizawa-sensei ignored both comments, though his eyes had widened very slightly at the mention of his hero name. Few students typically figured out who he was, after all. He let them both go once it was obvious neither was going to fight each other again.

While he hadn't noticed it being used on him, Midoriya could tell the moment Aizawa-sensei released his quirk on them.

A familiar warmth-

"Wha-" Midoriya's voice came out strangely, and not just because of the shock. His entire body felt strange, and he tumbled to the ground on suddenly shaky legs.

Looking down on himself, he saw a shocking transformation had somehow occurred. In the span of an instant, his body had changed into that of an octopus.

His legs had turned shaky because there were no longer legs at all, and When he tried to raise his hand, he saw that it was no longer made of flesh, but had turned into a long spindly tentacle instead. No wonder his voice had sounded strange too.

Cries of shock and horror came from the crowd. Even Aizawa-sensei's eyes had widened dramatically.

"What happened?!" Several people shouted out at once.

"Is this part of the test?" A boy with yellow-and-black hair wondered out loud, looking worried.

It was Kacchan who summed up the situation bluntly, "Deku, your new quirk turned into a fucking octopus."

"So that really is still the same guy?"

"Did he say a new quirk?!"

"What does that mean?"

"You can't change quirks! ….right?"

As the others reacted to this, Uraraka's mouth dropped open in awe. It was one thing to hear stories or even see pictures, and another thing to see in happen right before her very eyes. Though she's believed him, she still couldn't help but breathe out, "Wow, Deku, you really can change your quirk!"

"B-but I didn't want to...?" Midoriya frowned confusedly. Obviously, Quirk Change had activated and changed from Elemental Cycle to…. Octopus Body, he supposed.

Now, this was not the first full body change to occur to him thanks to his quirk. But mutation quirks that changed one's body completely were actually fairly rare, so it was still something of a shock anytime one occured, since partial transformations were much more common, and even then, there were still quite an adjustment.

In any case, the biggest shock to him was not the fact that he had essentially suddenly changed into an octopus—no, it was the fact that he had not wanted to changed at all.

This had never happened before. Sure, there were times when his quirk happened to almost change on it's own, but that was because of a stray or subconscious thought where he willed it. Even then, that kind of think hadn't happened in years. This time, he had been perfectly happy and content with Elemental Cycle and had zero desire to change quirks at all.

Recalling the events that led to this, he could only assume that Aizawa-sensei's quirk had been the cause. So, temporarily "erasing" his quirk led to his quirk changing once it was back?

"Hm.. this has never happened before." Aizawa noted dryly as he stared at him.

"It happens to Deku all the time." Bakugou cut in, with a smirk as he recalled past times.

Even as an octopus, Midoriya could roll his eyes in exasperation, thankfully. "Not all the time, Kacchan. I mean, I definitely didn't want to this time."

Now that he wasn't so shocked, he'd been able to speak more clearly. There was still a certain strange quality to his voice, but at least it was audible.

Kacchan snorted. "Yeah, why the fuck would you give up being able to control the elements to be a fucking octopus."

"Hey! Octopus Body could be great a really useful quirk for hero work too!" Midoriya retorted. Certainly, he had no great love for mutation quirks because how hard they were to get used to, but he could still see their advantages. "This is basically like Rubber Body, and I can stick onto all sorts of surfaces with my tentacles. It's be perfect for hero work!"

As he rambled on, he forgot the rest of the class aside from Kacchan, Uraraka and likely Aizawa-sensei, still had no idea what he was talking about. Until they very loudly reminded him.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Dude, why are you not worried about becoming an octopus?!"

"This is weird, right? I can't tell what's weird and what's not anymore!"

Looking embarrassed, though it was hard to tell on his octopus-like face, Midoriya turned to everyone and explained, "Sorry, we didn't exactly do a class introduction so there was never a chance to say it, but this is my real quirk's fault, basically. Quick Change lets me change my quirk whenever I want, but I can't control what I change it to, so it's luck."

Or, well, maybe not, he internally clarified. Izuku was still working on testing it though, so he didn't want to speak the theory he had out loud yet about it maybe not being so random, after all. In any case, suddenly going from elemental master to an anthropomorphic octopus wasn't great evidence for his theory. Especially when he hadn't wanted this change.

"Woah, seriously?!"

"I've never heard of a quirk that lets you change quirks!"

"That's so manly!"

"But why would you change now?"

"Oh, I didn't." Midoriya corrected. Pointing a spindly tentacle at Aizawa, he theorized, "I think as a side effect of getting my quirk erased, my quirk essentially… 'reset', I suppose? So it changed immediately once I could use my quirk again. After all, my quirk wasn't really Elemental Cycle, so what got erased was actually Quirk Change."

Everyone turned to the man to see if it was true. He merely shrugged. "It makes sense. I only sensed one quirk from you, at the time I erased." Then, giving a slight cough, he continued on, "Anyway, back to your results. I said before that the lowest scoring student would be expelled…"

With those words, the mood of the class dropped instantly. All the chaos and chatter Midoriya's quirk reveal caused dissipated in a flash. It was almost like a quirk, to be able to command such instant silence. It'd be named Mood Killer, maybe, Izuku mused, a little hysterically.

At the bottom of the rankings was the boy who had been able to bounce between two large purple balls during the Side Step, Mineta Minoru. There was a sense of somber sympathy from most everyone as they watched the boy tremble, looking ready to cry or shout as he realized his position. Izuku frowned, feeling a pang in his heart as he watched the other boy. He wanted to speak up on his behalf, somehow. It wasn't fair that he got expelled after a single trial like this, after all.

Before anyone could do or say anything though, Aizawa-sensei broke the tense silence with an absolutely sadistic smirk, or so it seemed, as he declared, "I was lying about that. It was all merely a ruse to bring out your full potential."

"WHAAAAAT?!"

The general mood of the class was shocked disbelief, though Yaoyorozu only raised her brow, pointing out, "Well, of course it was a lie, if you thought about logically."

Of course, Midoriya thought, with a sigh of relief. Obviously UA would not expel a student who had passed the entrance exams just because of a bad showing on a test that did actually allow them to showcase their full potential for actual hero work. He should've known better, after learning about the hidden rescue points, that nothing was so straightforward.

-o-

(Later, Midoriya would learn that Aizawa-sensei's so-called logical ruse was merely another ruse, and he'd been fully planning on expulsion for any student who failed to meet his standards, after all.

This would not be the only time the man would lie to his students for their benefit—and for his own sadistic amusement—either.

It was sort of a wonder Class 1-A didn't all develop trust issues after all of it.)

-o-

After that, the rest of the day was much less exciting and challenging. Or at least, it should've been.

For Midoriya, who was now spending the rest of the day as an octopus, it was perhaps even more exciting and challenging than the entirety of the Quirk Apprehension Test.

With his strange new tentacles in place of his feet, learning to walk even a short distance was quite a feat. He felt like a toddler taking his first shaky steps all over again.

"Do you need help?" Uraraka offered, after watching him stumble again for the upteenth time.

But even reaching for her helping hand was quite a task, and once he did, it turned out that he couldn't let go. This was quite a problem, since he ended up tripping soon after, and brought Uraraka down with him, until they were a strange tangle of fleshy limbs and sticky tentacles that looked quite unsettling to everyone who saw it.

This included a good chunk of the class still, as quite a few of his classmates also remained behind to watch and talk to him, mostly about his quirk, understandably.

"...um, wow, this is way too manly!?"

"Woah, this is seriously… ecchi!"

"I'm so glad I didn't get expelled!"

Both Midoriya and Uraraka were now flushed red with embarrassment as they desperately tried to untangle themselves from each other.

Being the completely horrible friend and person that he was, Bakugou didn't even bother offering to him, only sighing impatiently as he told him. "Deku, just fucking change your quirk already!"

"But Kacchan, think of the possibilities!" Midoriya protested, his voice sounding a little smushed from where his cheek was pressing up against a tentacle that was also sticking to Uraraka's arm. In his rush to defend himself against his friend, he quickly forgot about trying to free himself from his current embarrassing position. "You know I have to try a quirk for at least a week."

"You know we have our first class with All Might tomorrow, right?" Kacchan pointed out. "Are you seriously going to show up like this?"

It seemed this thought had not quite occurred to Izuku until the blonde had mentioned it. "Okay, maybe you have a point."

"We'd be able to get free too," Uraraka pointed out, clearly much more aware of their current situation and veyr eager to get out of it.

"Right, sorry," he apologized sheepishly, before quickly calling onto his quirk again.

-o-

Warmth-

-o-

In an instant, the tentacles were all gone, leaving MIdoriya and Uraraka to tumble to the ground from the suddenness of no longer being entangled by strange limbs.

As the two slowly stood up again, more questions were quickly peppered at them, though mostly against the Quirk Change user, with Uraraka simply being unfortunately close. Though there was some chatter, the main question on everyone's mind was simply:

 _"So, what's your quirk now?"_

* * *

 **A/N: I debated a lot over what effect Aizawa's quirk would have on Midoriya and in the end, settled for this, because I feel like it makes sense and moves the plot the best? Having it only not allow him to change his quirk seemed both a lil OP and basically not dramatic enough, lol. In case it wasn't too clear in the text itself, MIdoriya only has one quirk, Quirk Change, which changes his quirk. Whatever quirk he has changed into is basically his quirk. Basically: think of it as him having a transformation quirk basically, only he can transform his quirks instead of his body. When Aizawa erases his quirk, he erases his quirk entirely, meaning his current quirk/ability to change quirks. When the effect is gone, his transformation has "reset", so he changes quirks automatically, like a computer rebooting after being suddenly shut off.**

 **-**

 **Also, I originally thought of having Mineta expelled at this point, and had a whole dramatic scene for his last ditch attempt at not being expelled by throwing Midoriya under the bus, and forcing him to take the exam again with his new quirk because he was "cheating" the first time with Elemental Cycle. I decided I actually wanted Mineta to stay bc I have some ideas for him, and anyway, the scene seemed out of place.**


	13. Heat Detector and Hero Costumes

_"So, what's your quirk now?"_

In the face of everyone's expectations, Midoriya could only shrug apologetically.

"I don't know yet."

-o-

( _His quirks weren't always so easy to figure out. Every time he changed was literally a gamble, after all._

 _Mutations were the most obvious, of course. It was hard to miss a sudden transformation into some strange new form, after all. New additions or deductions to his usual body were pretty easy to spot. Even the more subtle ones that weren't noticeable to other people at first glance were pretty obvious to him, since he could feel that something was different._

 _Transformation type quirks were also fairly easy to test, if not as immediately clear. After years of countless experimentations, he'd realized the sensation of using transformation quirks was incredibly similar to the one of changing his quirks, so it was usually a simple matter of willing or wanting a transformation to occur and observing what changed after._

 _Emitter type were the true puzzles, the ones hardest to figure out. They were also-either fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it-the most common too._

 _At least he was pretty used to being stumped on whatever his new quirk was at first._

 _Because Emitter quirks had the most variation, and their activation rules were similar all over the place, it could be quite a herculean task to figure it out sometimes.)_

-o-

By the time the first day at UA had ended, Midoriya still had no idea what his current quirk was. Then again, he hadn't been able to experiment much in the confines of the school campus, and they'd been basically free to go after the Quirk Apprehension Test, so it wasn't like he'd had all that much time to puzzle it out anyway.

Regardless, now that he was free to do what he wanted, he wanted to experiment to his heart's content.

He could barely contain his excitement, and nearly rushed out the gate, held back only by his friends walking alongside him. Having missed them on the morning, Uraraka was taking full advantage of the opportunity to walk out with them this afternoon, at least. Testing could wait just a little longer, as the Three UA Amigos enjoyed having just successfully completed their first day at UA together.

"I can't believe the first day is over!" Uraraka echoed his thoughts aloud. "So many crazy things happened!"

"Yeah, that Quirk Apprehension Test was really crazy," Midoriya shook his head. "Thank goodness his threat of expulsion was just a ruse."

"Not that you were in any danger of failing, Deku." Uraraka teased. "Besides, the craziest things involved you! I can't believe the way you threw that ball into the air! Or how you transformed into an octopus at the end!"

"Hey, you managed to throw the ball into infinity, so I still lost!" Izuku rebutted goodnaturedly.

"I can't believe I fucking lost to the both of you losers." Kacchan glare at them both, clearly also invested in what happened during the tests. "And to fucking Ponytail too."

"Boy, you really like giving nicknames, don't you?" Uraraka observed, looking very amused by this. "It's actually kinda cute!"

" _Tsk tsk_ , still a sore loser, Kacchan?" Midoriya shook his head with exaggerated disappointment. "A true hero believes in good sportsmanship, you know."

" _Whatever, you assholes,_ " Bakugou snapped at both of them, stalking forward angrily. "Just wait for fucking tomorrow! I'm gonna beat you both to the damn ground! And I'm not fucking _cute—_ I'm fucking _awesome!_ " He screeched out in parting, as he left both of them behind.

"Goodbye and see you tomorrow too, Kacchan!" Midoriya called out in response, unable to resist a parting shot of, "And don't be ashamed to be _adorable!_ "

He received a middle finger in response. Classic Kacchan, really.

Shaking his head, he turned to Uraraka, "Well, I guess this is where we part ways. I still have to figure out my quirk before tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, I promised to meet up with my parents after classes were over." The girl replied. "See you tomorrow, Midoriya-kun!"

The two managed to bid each proper goodbyes, unlike a certain blonde, before they went their separate ways.

-o-

Midoriya pretty much immediately began testing his quirk out once he was alone on the streets. At first, it was pretty much bust after bust, but he wasn't too surprised, and his enthusiasm was hardly dampened as he made his way towards the train station.

Usually, he avoided testing unknown quirks in more crowded areas for obvious safety and legal reasons, but this time, as he neared the entrance, he'd tried to will his quirk into activating one last time, and noticed something different.

This time, he felt _warmth_.

A lot of it.

For a moment, he froze, wondering if he'd somehow activated Quirk Change by accident. But he quickly realized this sensation was different. The warmth wasn't coming from inside him— _it was coming from everyone and everything else._

-o-

( _There was always something inherently exciting about the moment he first realized what his quirk was. It was always a little like the first time he woke up and found out he could glow._

 _The sheer joy of discovering one's quirk was one people usually only ever experienced_ once _. But Midoriya was lucky enough to experience it hundreds of thousands of times in his lifetime and sometimes, he thought_ that _was the best thing about Quirk Change.)_

-o-

Similar to his past _Metal Detector_ quirk, when activated, Midoriya could sense the heat levels of everyone and everything around him. _Heat Detector_ , he dubbed pretty much immediately and rather unoriginally, was probably not the best quirk he could've gotten for tomorrow's classes.

Certainly, it was pretty weak and useless by Kacchan's standards, not exactly being an offensive quirk, but Izuku merely began to think work out different scenarios to draw out its potential with growing excitement.

Similar to Metal Detector, he could easily see this quirk's effectiveness as a stealth and information gathering tool.

He would be able to easily pick out hiding villains, especially if he managed to tell the difference between different heat signatures, so even in a crowd, he could track them easily. Even more critically, he'd be able to locate victims during rescue missions. At a glance, he'd be able to tell if and where anyone was inside a crumbling building during natural disasters, which would be invaluable information during such a time sensitive operation.

Sure, it was a far cry from the sheer power and versatility of Elemental Cycle, which may as well have been the perfect quirk for an aspiring hero, but it was hardly terrible either,

Besides, he thought to himself with a laugh, at least he wasn't stuck as an octopus for his first meeting with All Might as a teacher.

-o-

 **Midoriya** : Heeeeeeyyy ( ^_^)／

 **Midoriya:** I figured out my quirk! ＼＼\\\ ⱶ˝୧(๑ ⁼̴̀ᐜ⁼̴́๑)૭兯 /／／

 **Uraraka** : oooh, what is it? (′ʘ⌄ʘ‵)

 **Midoriya** : It's Heat Detector! I can sense the heat lvls of everything around me

 **Midoriya** : From ppol to appliances to weather, lol ῍̩̞(∗ɞ⌄ɞ∗)◞

 **Uraraka** : woah, that's amazing! ╰( ･ ᗜ ･ )╯

 **Uraraka** : is it like those night vision thingys? Infrared, was it?

 **Midoriya** : u mean like thermal imaging? Oh yh, that's a good pt ╰(◉ᾥ◉)╯

 **Midoriya** : but its not like that, since i don't really see heat ヾ(≧∇≦*)ゝ

 **Uraraka** : lol

 **Midoriya** : i can just feel it? Its kinda hard to describe ( ⋂‿⋂')

 **Midoriya** : bt like i literally just feel heat, so something that's hotter feels hotter to me. (ᅌᴗᅌ* )

 **Uraraka** : i see… wow , that's even cooler than! ヾ( °▽° )ノ

 **Uraraka** : or, shud that be hotter? Lol (-‿◦ )

 **Midoriya** : haha, yes (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑

 **Midoriya** : anyway, im still working on testing it's limits rn.

 **Midoriya** : i'll tell u mre tom! Gtg! (๑◡๑)

 **Midoriya** : byeee ＼(^▽^＠)ノ

 **Uraraka** : haha, ok. Bye! ヽ(^。^)丿

-o-

As promised, Midoriya spent the rest of the day, and a good chunk of the night, testing the limits of his quirk, though he was careful not to overdo it, since he wanted a good night's rest for tomorrow.

Still, even sleeping fairly easy, he'd managed to learn a lot. As he'd told Uraraka before, like most sensory quirks, he'd get headaches if he went over his limits, and nausea from motion sickness if he moved too much. So far, his distance limit for Heat Detector seemed to be around fifty meters, similar to Metal Detector before.

But reaching so far was possible if he focused only on a single heat signature, or at best, multiple ones in close proximity. Spreading his focus to cover multiple signatures in different areas was simply too much information at once, especially at such large distances.

At least he'd figured out it was fairly easy to distinguish heat signatures from each other, as they all felt just a little different. Still, in a large crowd, it was easy to get confused just from the sheer numbers and similar signatures. There was also a slight tendency for signatures to blend with each other when in such close quarters too.

People and objects also gave off very different feelings, so there were no problems at telling them apart. Separating different objects was harder, but that was mostly because he didn't have enough experience with his quirk yet to tell which heat signature was what. From observing his mother as she cooked dinner, he was able to figure out most kitchen appliances at least, but anything else would have to wait.

Dinner was katsudon, after all, and that was his favorite. Chowing down eagerly, he told his mother all about his first day in between bites.

He'd have time in the future, he figured, not to concerned with further experimentation. As he got ready for bed, Midoriya's thought were, for once, not filled with his quirk, but with anticipation for tomorrow's classes at UA.

-o-

The next day was both less and more exciting than their first.

There were no surprise tests, with threats of failure this time.

Instead, there was only the all too familiar classes that were extensions from middle school. English, History, Math, Science, all the usual subjects that were covered were also tackled at UA. It would've been pretty boring, and Midoriya might've been tempted to zone out and just work on his quirk like he often did in middle school, but unlike back then, all his teachers here were _pro heroes._

Being the hero fanboy that he was, he was able to stay awake and focused through all the lessons, which were mostly just filled with introductions and overviews, since it was only their first day for those classes, after all. Of course, he may have spent half this time awake spouting facts about each pro hero to Kacchan, who only rolled his eyes most of the time, and Uraraka, who responded with enthusiasm or confusion, depending on who the hero was.

Occasionally, he made a little too much noise and drew Iida's scolding. When this included Bakugou too, it tended to dissolve into a fight that made more noise than Midoriya's initial eager deluge of hero facts, until it got so bad it drew the teacher's attention, and they _all_ ended up in trouble. At least it had only lead to a scolding and nothing worse, though Iida had seemed greatly affected regardless, looking quite horrified at both his actions having led to a disruption and Bakugou's total lack of care about the whole thing. Midoriya had given him a consoling pat on the back, internally wondering how soon Kacchan would drive him into a mental breakdown over his attitude. It was only the second day, and things were not looking too good for him.

At least there was something to look forward too. Though by the time they took a break for lunch, they'd already experienced some "excitement", everyone knew the best was yet to come.

While most of the subjects taught at UA were fairly typical, were certain subjects that were unique to the school, and to the Hero Course in particular. Namely, Hero Fundamentals, taught by the No. 1 Hero himself!

Obviously, everyone, including Izuku, was most eager for this subject. Most of the chatter at lunch was about the topic, and the table of the 3 UA Amigos was no exception. Not even Kacchan could put up his usual veneer of indifference at the thought of what the class would bring.

"This time, I'm definitely beating you, Deku," Bakugou promised fiercely, before smirking confidently, "Not that it'll be much of a challenge with only weakass Heat Detector as your quirk."

Midoriya gave a long suffering sigh at this. Sometimes, he wondered why he bothered talking to the blonde at all when he could tell exactly what he was going to say before he said it. Not for the first time, he told him, "It's not Elemental Cycle, sure, but it's still a powerful quirk in its own way, Kacchan."

The blonde merely scoffed disbelievingly, giving a sarcastic retort. "Yeah, and I'm a fucking fairy princess."

At least Uraraka was positive and enthusiastic as always. "I believe you can do it, Deku! Heat Detector is an amazing quirk too!"

Midoriya clearly made the best decision saving her from that giant robot. Not that he would've left anyone behind, even if they were the biggest jerks, but Uraraka was totally awesome and the friend he probably—and Kacchan definitely—didn't deserve.

"Ugh, I can't believe I'm seriously sitting here with _two_ of you smiley sunshine freaks."

 _Definitely_ didn't deserve.

-o-

( _Someday, he would finally get to working on all those nasty little lingering issues with Kacchan._

 _That day was not today. Not yet. Neither of them were really ready to open that can of worms, or drag anyone else into their mess._

 _But that day would be coming far sooner than they expect.)_

-o-

Finally, it was time for Hero Fundamentals class.

It did not disappoint. The hero everyone was waiting for, burst through the doors, wearing his classic Silver Age costume and beaming his signature smile at him.

Midoriya was not ashamed to say he fanboyed at the sight _. A lot_. Even though he'd known All Might would be coming in to teach this year, it still hadn't quite hit him as a real thing until now.

Possibly even more exciting than the introduction of the No. 1 Hero, however, was the news he brought. He wasted no time in telling them all what their first lesson would be:

 ** _BATTLE TRAINING!_**

Everyone broke into excited chatter at this announcement. But the excitement didn't end there. Together with the news of what they would be doing for the lesson came the additional fact that they would be doing it all in their very own hero costumes!

They'd all sent in their ideas and drawings, to be turned into very real objects by a support company, so they could use it during their time at UA. It was one of the best pros about studying at UA. Even as students, they'd be able to get professional grade equipment and costumes.

Boy, had Midoriya abused the hell out of that privilege.

He'd sent in just about every wild and stray idea he'd accumulated over the years, which was no small collection. Being the aspiring hero he'd always been, Midoriya had been designing variations of his hero costume for years, growing greatly in complexity as he grew older.

Despite some of the more challenging aspects of his requests, it seemed the support company had done incredible work. There was a note saying how some of his requests were still being worked on and wouldn't be available until later on, but for the most part, everything he'd asked for had been achieved.

When he saw the results of his drawings and notes, Midoriya was very impressed, letting out a low whistle as he changed into the costume and looked at himself in the mirror.

Despite undergoing many changes, the general aesthetic had always remained mostly the same. Considering Quirk Change and its unique, luck-based powers, Midoriya had found himself inspired to base his hero name and look on something similar. So he'd taken cues from the joker card in classic games, drifting to court jesters from medieval times they were inspired in turn from, before also looking at carnival clowns and magicians as well. In the end, he'd come up with a costume that was sort of a mishmash of looks from different ages.

Covering his eyes and the bridge of his nose was a black domino mask. His wild green curls were mostly covered by a floppy red and black striped jester's hat that he thought had sort of looked like All Might's hair, so his fanboy self hadn't been able to resist throwing it in there. Continuing the jester/joker theme, his top half consisted of a long sleeved shift-like shirt in a black and red diamond pattern, while the accompanying pants were made up of colorful stripes in various colors.

While he'd considered defensive armor, it would've been nice but completely impractical for his quirk, unfortunately, and focusing on mobility and flexibility was a perfectly acceptable strategy too.

The actual material of the fabric was light, breathable and _super_ stretchable, to hopefully accomodate for any drastic changes in body shape or size as a result of changing his quirk. He'd included a request asking the support company for help in designing a fabric which could somehow withstand huge changes in anatomy, which was what the company's note stated was still a work in progress. As of now, his costume would hold decently well if the changes weren't too big, but would definitely ripped if he changed into something like Minotaur Body again.

Holding the two pieces of his outfit was a plain black utility belt containing all the various support tools he'd asked for, all disguised as something else. In the guise of multicolored juggling balls, he had various different types of "bombs". He had red for some classic smoke bombs, yellow for flash bangs, blue for sleeping gas bombs, and green for a special bomb that dispersed a capture net on impact.

There had also been a request for a literal grenade to be included too, but this had been rejected for being too dangerous and lethal. Midoriya thought that was a little silly considering they had admitted a student whose quirk was literally Explosion, but he supposed he should've been happy to receive most of his other requested bombs.

Aside from the bomb balls, he also had a long string of colorful handkerchiefs tied together for rope, and small metal playing cards that were sharp enough to function as small knives for cutting or as a throwing weapon in a pinch. His main weapon, which could be equipped to his belt, was a "magic wand" that could extend into a bo staff with a hidden switch.

All in all, he'd managed to get nearly everything he'd asked for, and the company had gone pretty crazy with his chosen theme, making him look straight out of the pages of his inspiration books.

-o-

( _Like most, Midoriya would change his hero costume several times over the course of his career, from his time as a student, to his debut, and through the many years he was active._

 _Thanks to his own experience and the advice of various support personnel, including one Hatsume Mei, he'd add a variety of other useful support tools to his arsenal, including the actual bombs he'd always wanted._

 _But the general motif of his costume would remain the same, one inspired by both his quirk and his wish to make people smile when they saw him, the same way All Might did.)_

-o-

Needless to say, Midoriya was grinning ear-to-ear as he walked out of the locker rooms in his costume, feeling like he could be exactly the hero he'd always wanted to be, wearing a costume straight out of his childhood daydreams.

Clearly, he wasn't alone though. Everyone looked great in their costumes, really. There was an incredible variety in the aesthetics and themes they'd all chosen, which only made them all look more amazing as they stood next to each other.

Though not everyone agreed, it seemed.

"Hmph, mine's cooler." Kacchan claimed immediately, showing off his grenade inspired design proudly, before he shook his head with a sigh. "I keep telling you, you look like a fucking _clown_ with that design."

"And I keep telling you, that's the whole point!" Midoriya replied exasperatedly. "You do realize you look like a _villain_ with your costume, right? I want a design that makes people _smile_ , not cry with fear!"

"That's what all the fucking villains will do too when they see you, dumbass Deku." Bakugou countered, "And, hello, I want the fucking villains to shit themselves in fear when they see me."

"Kacchan, I mean the civilians you're supposed to be helping too, obviously!" Midoriya sighed, long suffering, "You'll make the guy mean to save cry when you rescue them too."

"Who the fuck cares if they do, so long as I fucking save them anyway?" He scoffed, clearly not seeing the problem.

Before Midoriya could point out their importance to hero rankings and that top spot the blonde was so obsessed with, the third member of their little trio approached.

"Wow, what an amazing costume, Deku!" Uraraka exclaimed, as soon as she saw him. "I love all the colors and the clown theme! It's super cute!"

"Thanks! I've had this idea for ages," Midoriya grinned widely, happy that someone appreciated his design, and quickly explained in an eager rush. "I really wanted something that sort of reflected Quirk Change, and I thought a joker or clown theme was just perfect! I love the idea of them being able to bring smiles to people too."

"Yeah, I can totally see that! You've really thought your costume through, huh?" She noted, looking just a little jealous, as she lamented. "I wish I'd been more specific about the details of my costume's look too... It's just so… skin tight and curvy!"

She waved vaguely around her body, drawing Izuku's eyes down to her chest area, which was indeed as _curvy_ as she mentioned. He blushed. "Uh, yeah, I see."

Shaking his head though, he quickly reassured her, "But it's still a great costume, Uraraka-chan! The space theme is cute, sure to be a hit with kids, and super appropriate for your quirk too."

"Thanks, Deku," Ochako replied, looking unusually shy and embarrassed at his gushing praise.

"I'm just telling the truth," Izuku replied, flushing slightly as he realized he'd been a little overenthusiastic, perhaps.

"Wow, aren't you two just adorable!" Mina commented with a sly grin. "You make such a cute couple!"

From beside her, Kaminari whistled, impressed. "Damn dude, you move fast!"

"So manly!" Kirishima spoke admiringly, his cheeks pinking slightly, as he remembered their little incident yesterday with the tentacles...

"So unfair!" Mineta cried out, tears in eyes as he looked at the green-haired boy with deeply jealous eyes.

" _We're just friends!"_

" _She's not my g-girlfriend!"_

The two people in question quickly exploded into denials at the same time, faces both red as a tomato aa they did so.

 _Why did everyone keep thinking that? Why did people keep speculating about his love life at all?_ He wondered despairingly, as recalled his middle school classmates' words on his last of class.

"You dumbasses, Deku's not that kind of guy!" Kacchan defended him with shocking fierceness. "He's gonna be a fucking hero with me, obviously—he doesn't have time for that bullshit!"

" _Kacchan…_ " Izuku breathed out in surprise, a little touched by the defense, crude language and all. Sometimes, he wondered why he was friends with the blonde at all, aside from maybe pure habit. But moments like this, he remembered. Underneath it all, Bakugou was actually a good guy.

Unfortunately, some people took his words entirely the wrong way.

"Ahh, he's gonna be _'with you',_ huh, _'Kacchan'?"_ Mina echoed with wide eager eyes, looking like a shark scenting blood. "I guess we were all wrong about Midoriya and Uraraka… It's always you and Midoriya, after all!"

"Oh yeah, aren't you two like childhood friends or something?" Jirou joined in with a raised brow. "Pretty classic setup there."

" _Wha—-_?" Izuku gasped out intelligently.

" _The fuck are you saying?!"_ Kacchan exploded, starting to angrily stalk toward the two girls. " _And don't call me Kacchan, fucking Raccoon Eyes!"_

Thankfully, before the blonde could attack anyone, All Might finally spoke up, his usual booming voice possessing none of his usual confidence as he looked like he had no idea quite how to react to everything that had just transpired. " **Er** , **if everyone is ready now, we should really start now!"**

Everyone seemed to startle back to attention then, changing from regular teenagers messing around each other, to young heroes in training.

Though clearly still angry, Bakugou nonetheless cared more about doing well in this next class, so after merely an angry huff and glare in Mina and Jirou's direction, he turned back to listen to the rest of All Might's explanation for today's training,

Izuku wished he could be so focused. Unfortunately, he could still hear the previous teasing remarks ringing in their ears. _First Uraraka, then Kacchan? Was there no one his love life was safe from?_

-o-

( _Late on, as a pro hero, he would be utterly horrified by the legions of fans all too eager to speculate on his love life._

 _From tabloids to forums to the incredibly disturbing array of fanworks that include epic length novels and incredibly realistic erotic artwork, there was no pro hero out there that was not fair game for people to pair him with._

 _To his everlasting horror, this included even people like All Might or Aizawa._

 _He'd even seen one pairing him with Principal Nedzu, and at that point, he may or may not have simply given up on ever understanding anything about all this craziness.)_

-o-

As Iida quickly pointed out, for the battle training, they were using the same area the entrance exam took place in. Unlike the exams though, it was quickly revealed that their opponent would not be giant robots, but _each other._

This declaration finally tore Izuku out of his horrified musings. Nothing like a fight to get his attention (Kacchan _may_ have rubbed off on him a little too much).

Still, thinking about the setup this time, Midoriya was torn between excitement and disappointment. It would've been interesting to try fighting against the robots again with his new, and far less offensively powerful, quirk. He had some ideas that he would've liked to test out to see if they worked out, such as if he could sense the robot's weakest or control points by tracking areas with the most heat and using this information to his advantage.

But while that would've been interesting, fighting against live opponents would be even _more_ interesting, he thought.

There was a reason he was always fighting Kacchan to test out a new quirk, and it wasn't just because it was his way of humoring his friend's crazy bloodlust (though it was certainly that too). They were the most effective way to simulate real life situations where his quirk could come in handy. Robots were rarely found in the realities of hero work, after all.

 _Even better,_ Midoriya mused, _this time, he'd get to fight someone other than the explosion user._

-o-

Midoriya spoke (or thought) too soon, clearly.

Someday, he would learn to stop tempting fate.

-o-

It was him and Uraraka as the heroes versus Kacchan and Iida as the villains.

For a supposedly random matchup, it sure seemed fated. Midoriya wasn't quite sure how to feel about this. He'd been hoping to fight some new opponents, so this was a bit of a disappointment. Even though there was still Iida in the equation, he had little doubt Kacchan would be zeroing in on him and making it a one-on-one match regardless of the actual scenario.

Not to mention, while on the one hand, knowing everyone involved in this match at least meant they had the edge on information, on the other hand, they may have also all known each other a little too well—especially him and Kacchan.

After literal years of fighting each other, they were well aware of each other's strengths and weaknesses by now. For the most part, the results of their fights were usually decided by whatever quirk Midoriya currently possessed.

Needless to say, Heat Detector was not exactly a strong contender for a winner.

Indeed, grinning with complete cockiness and quite a bit of bloodlust, Bakugou proclaimed confidently, clearly assured of his victory, " _Get ready to fucking lose, Deku!"_

In truth, Midoriya wasn't sure at all he could win against the other boy with his current quirk, but he was hardly going to admit that. Instead, he merely shrugged, acting like he had no worries at all, "We'll see, Kacchan."

Maybe he didn't have the ideal quirk for this scenario, but that didn't mean he didn't have any ideas at all. Especially with Uraraka as his partner, he thought there was a good chance that maybe they could pull off a win, after all.

And all without changing his quirk too.

—

 **A/N: This is a bit shorter than usual, but it seemed to be a good stopping point, because continuing on would've made it way too long instead, or made me cut at a really awkward spot.**

 **I originally didn't think I'd get to post this at all, because I've been busy with work this week and really only had a bit of time to write at all. But I managed, somehow! Haha, hopefully next week will also go as scheduled**

 **So I've had this idea for his costume for quite some time now (ive even done some drawings, haha, which I'll prob post eventually if I can clean n color them up right) but some of the tools were a recent addition, like the wand turning to a bo staff (it was more of a jester's wand at first? And wasn't retractable and had different attachments you could switch around but that seemed a bit too complicated), and the bombs, esp the sleeping gas thing (winkwink for next chapter by the way).**

 **Uraraka's costume also has some additions (thanks to talking to Midoriya, and some of her own ideas that came after) that weren't mentioned in this chapter but will be in the next bc they are very relevant to the plot, lol.**

 **Also, the more i tease it for lolz the more i kinda wanna seriously do an OT3 for these 3, at least, for this fic with these specific personalities and dynamics haha. At the very least they were definitely going to be an OT3 friendship wise (they're already on the way there too, but there will definitely be more development in the future!)**

 **Feel free to tell me what your shipping preferences are, if any. I'll take them into suggestion too, though this fic will still primarily be gen regardless of developments.**

 **Finally, while Midoriya and Bakugou's relationship here is lightyears better than canon, there are definitely some Issues still festering underneath. To be honest, neither of them are very good to or for each other and (esp you extremely emotionally constipated Bakugou, geez), so that will definitely come up in the future!**

 **Next chapter will have the real battle start!**


	14. Battle Training!

**A/N: lol this was not supposed to be so long, but i kinda got into it, wanted to make the match longer (it was orig quite a fair bit shorter and had a lot less dialogue, but i thought this was better, more "show,don't tell" n truer to their characters haha), and had some fun ideas for the aftermath too so here we go! consider this extra long chapter to make up for the slightly shorter chapter last time :D**

 **lot's of action this time, so get ready!**

* * *

They had a bit of time to plan before the test officially started, and Midoriya immediately put it to use, as they quickly hashed out what to do. First, they each gave a rundown on all their equipment, Midoriya going first before asking Uraraka for hers.

It turned out Uraraka had taken some of his earlier advice about her quirk to her, and even came up with some ideas of her own on top of it, which she'd applied to her costume. Her helmet used pressure points and aromatherapy to ward off the effects of Zero Gravity on herself, which was quite important when paired with her the sleek white backpack she had on. This was actually a jetpack, which would give her the needed propulsion to allow her to fly with her quirk.

While it did have a maximum usage time of about forty five minutes, before its batteries ran out, and it could only be used continuously for about ten minutes at most before it overheated, even with these limitations, it was an incredible piece of equipment.

Aside from that, she had two incredible support tools to help her out too. One was a futuristic looking gun that would shoot out tiny balls made of rubber (metal was rejected for being too dangerous) she could use her quirk on to greatly increase their speed and effectiveness. While the other was basically a grappling hook with variable retraction speed that she could use for mobility if her jetpack was unavailable.

"Wow, your costume is even more amazing than I thought," Midoriya exclaimed in awe. "I can't believe you've actually got a real-life _jetpack_ as part of your costume!"

"Yours are cool too! Especially those different bombs of yours," Uraraka returned the compliment earnestly, adding, "And I wouldn't have gotten that jetpack if it wasn't for your advice about my quirk."

Midoriya give a slightly embarrassed laughed. "Well, I'm glad you thought my ideas were helpful. Speaking of, I actually have some ideas for how to beat Kacchan and Iida, especially with your quirk and that equipment…"

The green-haired boy's usual rambling tendencies proved to be quite helpful, because he was able to explain everything he'd needed to say just in time for the test to start. Uraraka thankfully, had no objections, and the both of them nodded determinedly at each other as they prepared to execute the plan.

-o-

Unsurprisingly, Bakugou and Iida's partnership was not going quite as smoothly in comparison. All of their previous interactions had been quite antagonistic and unfortunately for them, this was not an exception.

"Just fucking stay in your place and guard the shitty bomb, while I take them both down, _Bitchy Glasses_." Bakugou growled as he paced back and forth impatiently.

While part of him was tempted to go racing down the halls to find them and fight them, he knew Deku would be coming for straight him, considering his current quirk.

" _How dare-?!_ " Iida spluttered indignantly. "That is _not_ my name! And that is hardly a plan!"

"Tch, you're bitching yet again, Bitchy Glasses," the blonde pointed out with a condescending scoff. "And I don't need a fucking plan to take down Deku and Gravity Girl."

Smirking, he lit up his fists, setting off a few small explosions. "Not when I can fucking do this."

Needless to say, Iida was not appeased by any of this, and continued to argue his point. Bakugou rolled his eyes, considering stalking right out of the damned room just to piss the other boy off more. If Deku didn't show up in the next few minutes, he'd probably do it, screw the consequences, anyway.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Bakugou would not be kept waiting for much longer.

-o-

For the first step of their plan, the both of them were tied together using Midoriya's handkerchief rope, before being made weightless with Zero Gravity. As they started to float in the air, Uraraka activated her jetpack to direct them both skyward, up the building, right to the very top, in the span of less than a minute.

They both landed on the ceiling, whereupon Uraraka released Zero Gravity's hold on the both of them. There was a slight tinge of green on her face after she did so, but it only took a few deep breaths before she was back to normal, and giving Midoriya the OK to proceed.

Once more, he activated his quirk, confirming the villain team's positions near the top floors. Then, his focused his senses on the hot air being released through the exhaust ducts, tracking the flow of air from the ducting system running throughout the building, until he found the vents that lead directly to the ceiling on the floor where Kacchan and Iida where. It was _close_.

Their path secured, they wasted no time heading for the closest duct. After using Zero Gravity on the both of them again, they slowly and stealthily floating themselves down until they reached the right branching opening to lead them to their targets. With Midoriya's quirk still activated, it was easy to make their way to the right vent in no time. Through the metal slits, they could glimpse Bakugou and Iida down below, looking more like they were getting ready to fight each other than the hero team.

As Uraraka quietly released her quirk and regained her bearings, Izuku pulled out one of his metal playing cards and began to unscrew the vent as quickly but sneakily as he could. They only had one chance to do this sneak attack right.

Once he managed to get the screws off, he carefully slid it aside open just enough to be able to drop one of his bombs into the floor below.

Namely, his blue sleeping gas bombs.

-o-

" _What on—?!"_

 _"Fucking cheat—!"_

-o-

Immediately upon impact with the hard ground, the small blue bomb exploded and released the gas into the air. As the sleeping gas worked its way into the lungs of the two people on the ground, Midoriya and Uraraka were safe in the vents, each with a colorful handkerchiefs tied over their nose and mouth to make sure any stray fumes didn't affect them.

Once the lingering smoke dissipated, they would drop down from the vents and make their way over to the bombs, having bloodlessly secured the villains with a sneak attack.

Or, at least, that was the plan.

Instead, while Iida began to droop, clearly affected by the gas, Bakugou fiercely resisted the effects, and with a wave of anger-fueled strength, sent an explosion from his hands right at the ceiling above—straight for the vents Midoriya and Uraraka were still hiding in.

Thankfully, with Heat Detector activated, Izuku had been able to sense the buildup to his explosions, and he was able to quickly drop down, pulling his partner down with him, just in time to avoid most of the blast radius.

Less fortunately, they could not quite avoid some of the debris, or the sheer concussive force of the explosion blowing them away from each other, and the bomb they were aiming for.

Midoriya was now experiencing some serious throbbing at his side, and quite a few cuts and scratches from the debris. Unfortunately, Uraraka had gotten off far worse, having been hit in the head by some of the debris during their fall, and so, was momentarily down for the count. Hopefully, she would stir soon, because he could really use her and her quirk right about now.

At least Iida had been taken out too, as he was lying on the ground, fast asleep from the gas and completely unaware of what was happening, though how long that would last with all the noise and damage they were making was another matter.

Because Bakugou, who was quickly rushing at him with more explosions coming from his hands. " _YOU DAMNED CHEATING DEKU!"_

Midoriya avoided the initial swipe thanks to years of experience, and managed to dodge most of the attacks that followed too, in part thanks to his quick allowing him to easily track the other boy's body and movements. But he knew that if he didn't so something different, it would only be a matter of time until Bakugou took him out with his superior firepower by sheer brute force.

So, during a pause between attacks, he took the chance to throw his smoke bomb, creating the perfect cover for him to run as fast as he could for the bomb. After all, the point of the exercise wasn't to beat the other boy in a straight up fight, but to secure the bomb.

Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, knowing him all too well, Kacchan had anticipated this move, and he'd started heading for the bomb to as well.

" _I'm not letting you get away, Deku!"_

Using his previous knowledge of the location to rush at him with his explosive hands, Bakugou could effectively cut him off. Midoriya was close to the bomb, but still not close enough.

Knowing he wouldn't make it in time now that the blonde was flying right at him, Midoriya quickly decided to change strategy and go for the attack instead.

The smoke was already beginning to get dissipated by the shockwaves created by the blonde's explosions, so he only had a small window of time to make use of the smoke's effects still.

Good thing, he had just the thing to help him out, He threw the capture bomb next, hitting Bakugou right in the chest and causing him to suddenly get enveloped in a net. The suddenness of it threw his existing momentum into chaos and he tripped on his next step, the explosions in his hands sputtering out.

Giving a victorious grin at the direct hit, Midoriya nonetheless did not wait to see the results, and quickly ran for the bomb.

He was close, and all he needed to do was run a little bit closer. For a moment, it seemed like he would make it, as his hand hovered a scant few inches away from victory.

But a series of explosions reached his ears, quickly followed by a large ball of heat coming his way which blared like sirens on his quirk-enhanced sense—-and he was forced to quickly dodge the oncoming blast instead. He managed to roll out of the way _just_ in time to avoid it.

 ** _BOOM!_**

By his estimation, the explosion had been almost perfectly sized to avoid the bomb itself getting caught in the radius. It was enough not to cause him to lose this exercise, but it would've still certainly been a suicide move if this were the real scenario.

Midoriya had little doubt breaking the spirit if not the letter of this exercise was going to get Bakugou much points, but regardless, he was now back to nearly step one again with this move.

The smoke from his bomb was gone now, and Bakugou had managed to break free of the capture net by letting loose an explosion close to himself, judging by the slightly singed state of his costume. Considering both the net and the costume were supposed to be fire-resistant, Midoriya could only stare. _Kacchan really is a monster_ , he thought, with a slightly hysterical laugh.

"Seriously, Kacchan?" He asked incredulously. "We would've _both_ died if that was a real bomb, you know."

"But it fucking _isn't_ , is it Deku?!" Bakugou replied, completely unrepentant and also completely enraged. There was a savage grin on his face as he proclaimed loudly, " _I'm not fucking letting you win this, Deku!"_

Even though his two plans had just failed, and both their partners were out, Midoriya only felt his own blood pumping high in response to this blatant challenge. Grinning his own wild grin, he shot back, " _Too bad, Kacchan, because I'm definitely not going to lose._ "

-o-

" _Aww, I thought for sure Midoriya had it!"_

 _"Woah, nothing keeps Bakugou down!"_

 _"Man, and I thought Bakugou was the scary one, but did you see Midoriya's reflexes and that creepy smirk at the end!_

-o-

Needless to say, Bakugou was pissed off at that, abd came flying right towards him again, screaming bloody murder.

Using the brief time he had before the other boy caught up to him, Midoriya took out his "magic wand" from his belt clip, swiftly flicking the switch that turned it into a bo staff, just in time to defend against Kacchan's explosive flying kick.

Now with a weapon in hand, he was able to withstand the onslaught slightly better.

In truth, Midoriya was hardly an expert in wielding the bo staff. He had taken some classes, but barely a year's worth, and it had been a sporadic schedule too. Frankly, all he could really do were straightforward attacks and defenses. But even that was incredibly helpful in a fight. Considering this Bakugou, the monster who resisted sleeping gas, dissipated smoke and escaped fire-resistant nets, he needed all the edge he could get.

"Tch," Bakugou scoffed. "Using a fucking weapon now? So you know your quirk is weak as shit, after all. Why don't you just fucking change your quirk already?"

"Kacchan, are you actually giving me advice in the middle of a fight?" Midoriya asked, knowing that it would irk the other boy.

"Fuck you!" The blonde screamed right on cue, following it up with a particularly violent explosion Izuku just barely managed to dodge.

"I just want to fight you at your fucking best, dumbass Deku!" He added with a huff. "Winning against you when you're weak is obviously fucking pointless."

Coming from Bakugou, that was actually a pretty sweet sentiment. Not that Midoriya agreed with it at all.

"You know, Kacchan, just because my quirk isn't offensively powerful, doesn't mean _I'm_ weak." Midoriya explained calmly, following his statement up with a sudden jab of his staff, knocking Bakugou back, and sending his explosions briefly sputtering out. "Besides, you realize I nearly won a while ago, right? All using Heat Detector as my quirk."

" _You tried to knock me out with sleeping gas, and then you threw a smoke bomb and a fucking net, you damned shitty cheater!_ "

This explosion was followed up by a literal one that came far too close for comfort, but Midoriya was hardly intimidated, and he shot back, exasperated."And you sent an _explosion_ right next to what is supposed to be a _nuclear bomb,_ that is _way_ worse!"

Kacchan didn't bother replying this time, aside from another fierce attack Midoriya had to fend off that is. Despite all his words, he was well aware that if he did not do something soon, the other boy would end up winning this exercise after all.

At this point, the only support tools he hadn't used were his playing cards, which weren't much use at close range, and his flash bomb. Perhaps he could temporarily blind him long enough to try another rush to victory? Or he could just use his capture bomb again, since he did still have a few more of those, and while Kacchan could get free, it still took some time, and hurt himself in the process.

Midoriya quickly ran the different possibilities in his head, careful not to let himself get too lost in his thoughts as he kept up the fight with the other boy. Even with a weapon, he was just barely managing to defend himself, let alone actually counterattack.

All he needed was an opening to win. But Bakugou was not letting him have one, as he kept up a steady onslaught of attacks that left no opportunities for him to go for his support tools.

To make things worse, Midoriya could also sense Iida's form, growing steadily more erratic as their fight dragged on and the noise grew louder, but he could hardly worry about that.

Because he noticed another figure nearby was also stirring. To his relief, Midoriya realized that Uraraka was regaining consciousness.

To be precise, he could sense her heat signature gaining energy and movement, meaning she was awake, but he couldn't actually see what she was doing. Part of Midoriya was tempted to look and try to somehow signal her to go for the bomb while he kept Bakugou busy, but he knew it was way too risky.

The fact that Kacchan had yet to realize she was back in the game was their biggest asset right now. If Midoriya wanted to keep it that way, he needed to make sure the blonde's attention didn't waver from this current fight.

Good thing that wasn't exactly hard to do.

"Didn't you say something about me having no chance with my quirk being Heat Detector?" Midoriya asked lightly, with a taunting smirk, right after avoiding a swipe from the other boy.

As predicted, Bakugou exploded right on cue. " _Fuck you, Deku!_ "

-o-

Uraraka woke up with a throbbing at the back of her head.

It wasn't the usual headache and nausea she'd come to associate with her quirk, but the kind that came from hitting her head hard, she realized, as everything that had happened came rushing back to her.

 _Battle training!_

Her and Deku were up against Kacchan and Iida. They'd just managed to pull off the sneak attack Deku planned when the blonde had managed to resist the effects of the sleeping gas long enough to send an explosion straight for them. She remembered that her partner had managed to drag her out of the way in time, but nothing after that. She must have gotten hit by some of the debris.

But what happened after she lost consciousness?

Head aching, she tried to focus and figure out what was happening now. Breathing through the pain, she looked carefully around her. She quickly saw Midoriya and Bakugou locked in a fierce fight. The former was using a weapon, some kind of staff that looked like a giant magic wand, and was barely holding off the latter's explosions.

At the sight of her partner in danger, she nearly leapt towards him in response, before she caught sight of his face. Deku did not look panicked or worried at all. Indeed, he seemed to be taunting the other boy, and despite looking worse for the wear, he still proclaimed complete confidence in his team's victory.

His _team's_ victory.

Uraraka had nearly forgotten the conditions for winning this exercise. Once she did, she realized what would be the best course of action would be.

-o-

It was at this point in peak chaos that Iida started to stir, groggy voice full of confusion as he struggled to regain his bearings. "... _what just happened?_ "

His groggy gaze took in Bakugou and Midoriya wrapped up in an intense fight, and he quickly snapped to attention. _They were having battle training!_ He and the blonde had been fighting over the plan, when he'd suddenly lost consciousness. The last thing he'd seen before everything turned black had been Bakugou fighting hard against the effects of unconsciousness himself.

Clearly, he had managed to succeed somehow, if the sight before him meant anything.

But this was no time for confusion observation, he swiftly realized. Iida needed to act now. Quickly standing, he was ready to join in and help his partner defeat the green-haired boy when he noticed some movement in the corner of his eye.

His eyes widened in realization, and he quickly activated his quirk, the engine's on his leg heating up as he prepared to dash at Uraraka.

But it was _too late._ Though he tried vainly to rush after her regardless, she was going _too fast_ for him.

While Iida had momentarily frozen in confusion, Uraraka had quickly used her quirk on herself to turn herself weightless, turned on her jetpack, and rushed towards the bomb to immediately claim victory for their team.

-o-

 ** _HERO TEAM WINS!_**

Midoriya breathed a huge sigh of relief, finally deactivating his quirk, feeling ready to collapse right then and there, as his adrenaline began to fade and all his aches and bruises rushed in again. He had a killer headache and some serious nausea going on too, from using his quirk so much while moving so fast.

Meanwhile, Bakugou had frozen midcharge at the declaration booming out.

When he glanced to see Uraraka hugging the bomb, realizing what had happened, he screamed out in frustration, " _DAMN YOU GRAV GIRL!"_

Showing that the month of contact she'd had with both boys was a terrible influence on her, Uraraka grinned fearlessly at this explosion of anger, echoing Midoriya's previous words at him again. "Don't be such a sore loser, Kacchan."

At this, Midoriya let out a loud, definitely hysterical, laugh. But who could blame him? Aside from Kacchan himself, of course.

" _FUCKING FUCK TOO, DEKU!_ " Bakugou snapped, glaring darkly at him for this, looking between him and Uraraka, clearly wondering who he should be attacking first. His fists lit up with angry sparks.

It probably said something that neither him nor Uraraka were even the slightest bit intimidated by the sight of this.

The 3 UA Amigos descended into full-on chaotic banter at this point, with Bakugou looking like he was going to keep fighting any second now despite the exercise being over.

Meanwhile, in his own sad little corner, Iida could mutter a series of increasingly stern reprimands against himself.

-o-

The four of them were back in the viewing room with the rest of the class, after that.

Both Midoriya and Uraraka were looking slightly worse for the wear, but neither of them were really hurt beyond some cuts and scrapes. Their worst issue was some quirk overuse.

Meanwhile, both Bakugou and Iida were completely unharmed. At least, physically. Their emotional state and egos were definitely feeling thoroughly bruised after the exercise. Though the blonde looking angry wasn't too unusual, poor Iida looked like he was ready to cry at any moment after he realized what had happened during the match.

Once everyone settled down some, All Might began the discussion for the match, " **That was quite an interesting match! Who would you say was the VIP for the battle?** "

"Certainly not me…" Iida muttered dejectedly.

Feeling a little guilty considering it was his plan to use the sleeping gas bomb, Midoriya gave him a consoling pat in the back. Honestly, Iida's response was perfectly normal. Kacchan was the monster who could somehow resist the effects of the gas.

"Hmm.. it's gotta be Uraraka!" Kaminari suggested confidently. "She was the one who got the win by touching the bomb!"

"But Midoriya nearly won all on his own before! So manly!" Kirishima added, with an admiring grin. "Though Bakugou's counterattack stopping him then was super manly too!"

"Midoriya was the one who lead the initial sneak attack, and managed to keep up with Bakugou's counter attacks after long enough to give them the opportunity to win." Tsuyu pointed out bluntly in response. "If it weren't for him, Uraraka would not have been able to get to the bomb at all."

"Indeed, both members of the hero team displayed admirable planning and adaptability. The decision to use a sneak attack was wise considering the superior offensive capabilities of the villain team." Yaoyorozu commented, summarizing the match neatly as she continued. "Iida was taken out almost immediately thanks to this plan, and though he was able to quickly take in the situation and nearly stop Uraraka at the end, it was not quick enough. While Bakugou was able to resist and counter, even taking out Uraraka in the process, he clearly ignored the scenario's conditions. Creating such an explosion so close to a nuclear weapon would've been incredibly dangerous, after all."

At the criticisms, Iida drooped even more, while Bakugou gritted his teeth, glaring darkly at anyone who dared to look at him. Yaoyorozu didn't even seem to notice the reactions as she went on explaining.

"Even within the confines of the test, however, he let himself get caught up in the fight with Midoriya, failing to notice that Uraraka had regained consciousness and gone for the bomb. He didn't seem to notice his teammate waking up either" Finally, she concluded. "Thus, the title of VIP should go to either Midoriya or Uraraka, with the former being slightly more appropriate, as he displayed great strategic thinking throughout that also kept the scenario in mind. While he did seem to get a bit caught up in the fight with Bakugou, this worked in his favor as it allowed Uraraka to freely reach the bomb and ensure that they won. "

There was a moment of silence, as everyone registered this rather long-winded answer, before All Might reacted. " **Indeed, that is correct! I would also add that the villain team should not have been fighting with each in the beginning, and taken the time to plan like the hero team instead!"**

"I agree! We must all start at the bottom and work out way up together." Yaoyorozu nodded seriously. "If we do not earnestly help and cheer each other on, we will never be top heroes!"

Everyone gave a vague smile or cheer at this, but no one even half as enthusiastically as Midoriya.

"Plus Ultra!" Midoriya cheered, sending the girl a smile as he told her. "That was an impressive summary and analysis of our fight, Yaoyorozu-san. You really noticed a lot of details, and make quite a few accurate inferences from what you couldn't see too."

She gave a smile in response. "Thank you, Midoriya-san. Your plan was good, and you managed to react well to the unexpected. Though your quirk is completely different from yesterday, you managed to use it remarkably well. Ah, I also noticed you pulled out a bo staff during your match with Bakugou."

"Thanks! I've had a lot of practice with my quirk changing all the time, so I've become pretty good at adapting to new quirks by now," Midoriya explained with a grin, "And yeah, because my quirk is so unpredictable, I wanted to have a backup plan of attack, so I thought of using a weapon for times when I don't have a good offensive quirk, The bo staff seemed like the best choice. It's great for extending my reach, functions well for offense or defense, and it's an effective enough weapon even with only a little training."

"Yes, I noticed it seemed like you did not have much formal training with it, possibly only a year or so of training?I use a bo staff as my primary weapon as well, but I've been handling it for years, so I have some expertise in the subject." She stated matter of factly, a far cry from the arrogant bluster he was used to from Kacchan.

"Oh, that's so cool! We should definitely try sparring with other some time! I'd love any tips you can give me! What martial art styles have you been practicing?" Midoriya replied enthusiastically, beginning to bounce on his feet. "I've gone to a local dojo for some bojutsu and karate classes this past year, but not that regularly, since I've been focusing more on honing my quirk for the entrance exams. I've been thinking of going more often though, and maybe taking up Aikido too."

"A sparring match would be most appreciated. I've been trained in several types of martial arts since I was young, including bojutsu, aikido, jiu jitsu, and karate." She responded, eyes lighting up as she explained, "I think you would greatly benefit from practicing martial arts more seriously, and I greatly recommend taking up aikido, as it is quite well-suited to those with smaller or leaner builds."

As the two delved enthusiastically into a detailed conversation on different martial arts techniques that somehow morphed into talk of fighting philosophies and historical battles, everyone else in the class gave them all quite a wide berth.

"Looks like you have some competition, Uraraka-chan," Mina teased the other girl, observing the two geeking out together with a smirk.

"It's not like that! We're just friends," Ochako protested. "And Deku can make all the other friends if he wants to!"

Having somehow lost control of the class again, poor All Might's mental state seemed to be taking some hits too. Thankfully, he managed to pull himself together and regain the students' attention, coughing loudly, before somewhat awkwardly announcing, " **Anyway, now that the discussion is over, the next match will begin now!"**

-o-

Midoriya watched everyone else's fights eagerly. Compared to his own, the other matches went by in what seemed like a flash.

Lamenting his lack of a physical notebook, Midoriya made several pages worth of mental notes keeping track of everything happening. He and Yaoyorozu traded off making the most detailed analysis of each match's strategies, successes and failures. Often, they added upon one another's words, bouncing ideas off each other and building a clearer picture of the events together.

After a while, All Might had simply let them take over the bulk of explaining each team's actions.

The most interesting match was probably Todoroki and Shoji versus Ojiro and Hagakure. Though really, it was basically just Todoroki against literally the entire building, as he encased literally everything in ice, completely incapacitating the enemy without engaging in combat.

It was Midoriya's intentions, but executed with incredible power. Though he'd managed to beat the other boy during the Quirk Apprehension Test using Elemental Cycle, even if he still had that quirk now for battle training, Midoriya didn't think he'd be able to match that sheer power.

What would the result have been, if he had fought Todoroki instead? Truthfully, Midoriya didn't like his chances at all.

From the way Kacchan was gritting his teeth, he was clearly thinking the same thing.

"The other recommended student, huh?" Midoriya mused, "He's definitely got a great handle on his powerful quirk."

From beside him, Yaoyorozu nodded in agreement, "Indeed. During the Recommendation Entrance Exam he did quite well in nearly all areas."

"I'm not surprised. He performed really well in the Quirk Apprehension Test yesterday. If I hadn't had Elemental Cycle then, he would've totally beaten me. Though, of course, he still wouldn't have beaten you, Yaoyorozu-san!" Midoriya said with a laugh, clearly not bitter about losing the top spot unlike a certain blonde. "You've got a really incredible quirk!"

"Thank you, Midoriya-san," she said, looking pleased and just a little embarrassed at the enthusiasm, "You have quite an incredible quirk, yourself. I've certainly never heard of one like it."

This time, the two began a discussion comparing their quirks, and once more, Mina nudged Uraraka suggestively. "Wow, look at those two go, already _comparing quirks_ with each other!"

Uraraka merely sighed, utterly exasperated by the teasing, "It's Deku! He's a quirk-obsessed fanboy. He'll probably start going crazy about _your_ quirks soon enough too!"

Indeed, pretty much as soon as the two teams returned to the room for the discussion, Midoriya called out, "That was a crazy powerful display of your quirk, Todoroki-san!"

The boy was as cold as his ice, however, and in the face of such enthusiasm, he merely answered calmly, "Yes."

Despite the cold reception, Midoriya was not deterred, and merely continued, with the same level of enthusiasm, "You very effectively overpowered your opponent into submission, which is a perfectly valid strategy if you've got the the sheer power you have, of course. But a lot of it was sort of _wasted effort_."

Todoroki stilled at the criticism, looking like he was finally actually looking at Midoriya now.

But the boy in question was too deep in analysis mode to sense the change in mood, and he barely paused to take a breath as he proceeded to take down Todoroki's seemingly flawless take down.

"I guess there's the intimidation factor to consider, but you also have to consider property damage. Even if the ice can be melted right after, the sudden change in temperature and humidity might leave some permanent effects on the structural integrity."

While obviously lives were the priority, keeping property damage to a minimum was also very important since _livelihoods_ were dependant on it.

"Really, icing over the entire building was just pure overkill, and you probably could've isolated only the very floor the villain team was in, especially since your partner could use his quirk to scout ahead. You didn't even need to ice the ceiling, just their feet, as you pointed out, or just their entire bodies to truly ensure they wouldn't move. There's no guarantee villains wouldn't think the risk of damaging their soles is worth a surprise attack to take you down, after all."

In the silence that followed this analysis, you could've heard even the tiniest of pins drop.

Clearly, Midoriya realized now what his words had done. Looking suddenly sheepish, he faced Todoroki again, "Well, that's what I think you could do to improve next time, anyway. You've still done a pretty amazing job, of course! Definitely the fastest win we've seen in this exercise so far!"

For a long moment, Todoroki only stared at the other boy. Before finally, he replied, somewhat ominously, "I'll remember next time."

"That's… good?" Midoriya said uncertainly, watching the other boy walk away. He wasn't sure if he'd actually angered the ice user with his words after all.

"Wow, Deku! You really are amazing!" Uraraka told him.

"Tch, whatever." Bakugou grumbled to himself, barely heard over the din of the others praising Midoriya.

It wasn't like it had never happened before, since, while people had always been impressed by his quirk, he didn't exactly have the kind of personality that encouraged others to crowd around him and coo over him (not since he was a little kid and all his fiery confidence was considered cute instead of scary). But this time, it was happening right after a defeat, so this was all adding insult to injury on his poor pride. Seeing Todoroki's casual display of power, and knowing he couldn't match it pissed it off further. Not even Midoriya taking the guy down with his usual nerdy word vomit made him feel better, since it was _Midoriya_ doing it, after all.

"Yeah! First Bakugou, now Todoroki! You really have no problem challenging the powerhouses, huh?" Sero asked, looking impressed.

"Ugh, forget the guys, Midoriya somehow managed to get both the top girls' attention!" Mineta complained. "How did he reel in both Uraraka _and_ Yaoyorozu so quickly?! What's the secret?"

As the chaos began to descend on the class once more, All Might attempted to bring some order back in "... **Erm, please everyone, get ready for the next matches! We still have some more to go before the end of battle training!"**

-o-

If the matches before seemed to go by in a flash, they seemed to go even faster now. Until, finally, the last match ended, the discussions right after were finished, and All Might was congratulating them all on a job well done.

Since it was the last class of the day, everyone could leave right after. But most everyone stayed around to linger anyway, all eagerly talking about the Battle Training that happened.

Midoriya was, unsurprisingly, the subject of many a talk. Well-used to it, he let himself get dragged into the crowd of admirers, happily talking himself up (Kacchan was a bad influence on his ego, really), though he made sure to point out all of Uraraka's contributions too. "Really, the only reason the initial plan worked so well was because of her, and she basically got the winning point for us too!"

The praise and talk about how well the two worked together as a team drew more teasing from the girls. Though this time, they included Midoriya and even Yaoyorozu in them too, making the green-haired boy seriously wonder why his love life was such a favorite topic of people. Popularity was such a double edged sword, he mused, as the .

 _"Boy, you and Bakugou really went at it, huh?"_

 _"I can't believe you managed to face him head on in a fight like that!"_

 _"He literally shrugged off sleeping gas like it was nothing!"_

"Yeah, honestly. You know, despite everything and literally knowing him since we were toddlers, even _I_ was surprised by how he managed that," Midoriya admitted, before giving a smirk, "Well, not that it helped him in the end."

 _"Oooohh! What a burn!"_

 _"Damn, Midoriya, you are one serious badass!"_

It was then, seeing no explosions come his way after his comment, that Midoriya realized Bakugou had long abandoned them all to go home.

-o-

"Damnit, Kacchan! We were supposed to go home all together this time," Midoriya groused to Uraraka later, as the two of them packed up to walk to the station together.

Though they lived fairly far away from each other, they could at least walk to the closest station together and part ways there, at least.

"Well, he is pretty impatient." Uraraka pointed out, knowing this fact clearly after only a month. "I'd be more surprised if he did wait for us."

"Yeah, I guess. But still!" Midoriya shook his head. "Honestly, he's probably just sulking about losing the battle training. So he's being even more of a jerk than usual."

-o-

 **The UA 3 Amigos Chat**

 **Midoriya** : u left us behind! ૮( ᵒ̌▱๋ᵒ̌ )ა

 **Bakugou** : Because you both were being slow as shit

 **Bakugou** : Talking to all the fucking extras

 **Uraraka** : wait, _both?_ ┌╏ º □ º ╏┐

 **Uraraka** : did u just acknowledge me as not being an extra? ヽ( ω )ノ

 **Bakugou** : …..

 **Bakugou** : Whatever.

 **Bakugou** : You make a decent sidekick, Grav Girl

 **Midoriya** : wow, that's Kacchan speak for:

 **Midoriya:** "you're awesome, so im acknowledging u now" ¡( •̀ ᴗ •́ )و!

 **Uraraka** : lol yh, Deku, no need to translate. this one's pretty obv (๑◡๑)

 **Uraraka** : did i also just get another nickname? Σ(･口･)

 **Uraraka** : r u srly too impatient to use my full nickname now?（；¬＿¬)

 **Bakugou:** I hate you.

 **Midoriya** : aww, Uraraka-chan, u got another nickname too! ヾ(。◕ฺ∀◕ฺ)ノ

 **Midoriya** : w8, i just realized i don't have a nickname for u?（＊〇□〇）…！

 **Uraraka:** yh, Deku, y not? (๑´╹‸╹`๑)

 **Bakugou:** Bc he's a loser

 **Bakugou:** With shit taste in nicknames

 **Midoriya:** Hey! ( ≧Д≦)

 **Midoriya** : I can't believe ur ganging up on me? (っ- ‸ – ς)

 **Midoriya:** idk if i should feel annoyed or proud 〈(゜。゜)

 **Uraraka:** lol

 **Midoriya:** n hmm… how bout Ura-chan? o (^‿^✿)

 **Midoriya:** sort of has an "uwaahh" feel to it? ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡

 **Uraraka:** aww, like Dekiru for Deku ヾ( ^▽^ )ノ

 **Uraraka** : i like it! ₍՞◌′ᵕ‵ू◌₎

 **Bakugou:** That's basically just her fucking name.

 **Uraraka** : omg did u just acknowledge that u actually do knw my name? щ(゜ロ゜щ)

 **Midoriya:** ur just jealous she likes my nickname better than urs! (• ৺ •)

 **Bakugou:** I hate the both of you

 **Midoriya:** u totally love us (✿´ ꒳ ` )

 **Midoriya:** even if we did beat u in the battle training ( ◠ ◡ ◠ )

 **Uraraka:** omfg (」゜ロ゜)」

 **Bakugou** : FUCK U DEKU

 **Bakugou** : I'LL BE THE NO. 1 HERO N I'LL BEAT U N GRAV GIRL

 **Bakugou:** N EVERYONE FUCKING ELSE TO DO IT!

 **Midoriya:** lol glad to see u've got ur energy back ల(*´= ◡ =｀*)

 **Midoriya:** i was kinda worried tbh wen u didnt insult me at all

 **Midoriya:** Or try to attack me during the discussion after

 **Midoriya:** U didn't even get angry at Yaoyorozu for criticizing u? （○□○）

 **Midoriya:** n then u just got all quiet

 **Midoriya:** which is so unlike u? ( ꒪Д꒪)ノ

 **Uraraka:** yh, even i know that

 **Bakugou:** ….

 **Bakugou:** Whatever

 **Bakugou:** So i was having a fucking off day

 **Bakugou:** Don't let it get to your damned head

 **Bakugou:** I'm fucking beating you both and all the other shitty fucking extras in Class 1-A in the next one!

 **Midoriya:** aww, wouldn't have it any other way (︶.̮︶✽)

 **Midoriya:** bc its so much more fun to beat u wen u get angry abt it ✌(-‿-)✌

 **Bakugou:** FUCKING DIE IN A PIT DEKU!

 **Uraraka:** lol

* * *

 **A/N: is anyone really surprised Deku & Uraraka won, tho? lol. i did consider having Bakugou win instead, since it's honestly pretty close bet the two but I decided this worked better for the plot. also, Uraraka gets to shine! ...tho poor Iida really got the short end of the stick in this match D: (he'll get some more focus next chapter, dealing with the stuff here, to make up for it!) **

**tbh, interactions for all of class-1A is reaally hard to do bc there are so many of them. i really just have to pick and choose who to focus on unfortunately. this time it's yaoyorozu+todoroki, and some of the baku/dekusquad (bc they are loud n make great commentary lol) poor quiet bbys in the class get no spotlight D:**

 **also, i keep adding chatfic sections to this bc i have no self control, huhu. tbh i have way more stuff i want them to say in chat but i'll prob save those for the chatfic i've actually done for this fic lol (mild spoiler: get ready for a class chatfic soon!)**


End file.
